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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Deep Space: The new frontier of radiation controls
In commercial nuclear power, there has always been a deliberate tension between the regulator and the utility owner. The regulator fundamentally exists to protect the worker, and the utility, to make a profit. It is a win-win balance.
From the U.S. nuclear industry has emerged a brilliantly successful occupational nuclear safety record—largely the result of an ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) process that has driven exposure rates down to what only a decade ago would have been considered unthinkable. In the U.S. nuclear industry, the system has accomplished an excellent, nearly seamless process that succeeds to the benefit of both employee and utility owner.
T. D. Märk, M. Pahl, R. Vartanian
Nuclear Technology | Volume 52 | Number 2 | February 1981 | Pages 295-305
Technical Paper | Technique | doi.org/10.13182/NT81-A32672
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Annealing characteristics of spontaneous (fossil) and induced (recent) fission tracks in sphene were measured in a temperature range of 873 to 768 K. Results include the reduction of number density, maximum track length (horizontal projection), and average track length (horizontal projection) as a function of annealing time [up to 1.5-107 s (175 days)]. Using the track dimension method, a corrected fission track age for sphene was derived. The annealing characteristics are interpreted by means of a new annealing model, yielding information about the elementary processes governing the annealing mechanism for the etchable zone of fission tracks. Monomolec-ular recombination and the annealing of dislocation loops are proposed as the likely dominant annealing processes. Annealing coefficients α(T) obtained from the number density annealing characteristics under the assumption of a single exponential function approximation are used to derive an age-temperature relationship giving for a measured corrected fission track age in sphene the corresponding temperature . This age-temperature relationship of sphene is compared with the age-temperature relationship of apatite.
