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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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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Latest News
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
Eva Brayfindley, Ralph C. Smith, John Mattingly, Robert Brigantic
Nuclear Technology | Volume 204 | Number 3 | December 2018 | Pages 343-353
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1490123
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Spent fuel monitoring and characterization has been central to safeguards and nuclear facility monitoring for many years. The Digital Cerenkov Viewing Device (DCVD) has been used since the 1980s as a method of defect detection in spent fuel. In recent years, the accounting for large quantities of spent fuel before storage has renewed interest in this relatively quick and inexpensive method. This has an impact not only in safeguards, but also for nuclear power facilities, as accounting can be a long, arduous, and costly process. Additionally, the DCVD demonstrates limited accuracy in more complex cases such as substitution of a fuel rod with steel or a partial defect detection. A second method, gamma emission tomography (GET) has been explored as an improved defect detection method, but is much more expensive and invasive than DCVD. The present investigation identifies deficiencies in both methods and proposes a combination of data gathered from each method to address these deficiencies for improved spent fuel characterization. Initial results are promising, showing 97% detection of a single missing fuel rod when the data types are combined, versus approximately 50% and 70%, respectively, for DCVD and GET data on their own. These classification results are obtained with algorithms derived from facial recognition and applied to this problem, yielding unique accuracy in near real time while also maintaining the information barrier between output and measurement desired in safeguards.