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Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2025
Nuclear Technology
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Latest News
Reboot: Nuclear needs a success . . . anywhere
The media have gleefully resurrected the language of a past nuclear renaissance. Beyond the hype and PR, many people in the nuclear community are taking a more measured view of conditions that could lead to new construction: data center demand, the proliferation of new reactor designs and start-ups, and the sudden ascendance of nuclear energy as the power source everyone wants—or wants to talk about.
Once built, large nuclear reactors can provide clean power for at least 80 years—outlasting 10 to 20 presidential administrations. Smaller reactors can provide heat and power outputs tailored to an end user’s needs. With all the new attention, are we any closer to getting past persistent supply chain and workforce issues and building these new plants? And what will the election of Donald Trump to a second term as president mean for nuclear?
As usual, there are more questions than answers, and most come down to money. Several developers are engaging with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or have already applied for a license, certification, or permit. But designs without paying customers won’t get built. So where are the customers, and what will it take for them to commit?
M. V. Ramaniah, H. C. Jain, S. K. Aggarwal, S. A. Chitambar, V. D. Kavimandan, A. I. Almaula, P. M. Shah, A. R. Parab, V. L. Sant
Nuclear Technology | Volume 49 | Number 1 | June 1980 | Pages 121-128
Technical Paper | Nuclear Power Reactor Safety / Chemical Processing | doi.org/10.13182/NT80-A32513
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Isotope Dilution Alpha Spectrometry (IDAS) and Reverse Isotope Dilution Alpha Spectrometry (RIDAS) have been developed for determining the concentration of plutonium in the irradiated fuel dissolver solution. The method exploits 238Pu in IDAS and 239Pu in R-IDAS as a spike and provides an alternative method in the event of nonavailability of 242Pu, which is required in Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry (IDMS). Depending upon the burnup of the fuel, 238Pu or 239Pu is used as a spike to change the 238Pu/(239Pu + 240Pu) alpha activity ratio in the sample by a factor of 10. This change is determined by alpha spectrometry on electro-deposited sources using a solid-state silicon surface barrier detector coupled to a multichannel analyzer. The validity of a simple method based on the geometric progression decrease for the far tail of the spectrum to correct for the tail contribution of 238Pu (5.50-MeV) peak to the low energy 239Pu + 240Pu (5.17-MeV) peak is established. Results for the plutonium concentration on different irradiated fuel dissolver solutions with burnup ranging from 1000 to 100 000 MWd/tU are presented and compared with those obtained by IDMS. The values obtained by IDAS or R-IDAS and IDMS agree to within 0.5%.
