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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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.
E. L. Childs, J. L. Long
Nuclear Technology | Volume 54 | Number 2 | August 1981 | Pages 208-214
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT81-A32736
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An electrolytic plutonium decontamination process for stainless steel was developed for use as the final step in a proposed radioactive waste handling and decontamination facility to be constructed at the Rockwell International Rocky Flats plutonium handling facility. The process utilizes a basic (pH > 7) electrolyte which has been patented (U.S. Patent 4 193 853). Filtration can be used to separate most radioactive contaminants and dissolved metal from the electrolyte. A test plan was executed comparing the basic electrolyte with phosphoric acid and nitric acid electrolytes. Laboratory-scale testing was done with stainless steel exposed to plutonium and americium. The alpha activity was reduced to <0.14 dis/min-cm-2. The amount of wet sludge generated with the basic electrolyte was ∼170 mg/cm2 of surface decontaminated.
