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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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.
Douglas M. Gerstner, James R. Parry, David J. Broussard, Brandon L. Moon, Anthony W. LaPorta, Charles P. Forshee, Lawrence J. Harrison, Monty L. Conley
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 10 | October 2019 | Pages 1266-1289
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1556993
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The TREAT facility suspended operations in 1994 after decades of highly successful operation. The TREAT facility began operations in 1958 with a hazards summary report that met the safety-basis regulatory requirements at that time. The TREAT safety basis was later updated in the early 1980s to include a Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) and Technical Specifications (TSs) that met the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) regulatory requirements at that time. The last substantial update of the TREAT safety-basis documents was performed in 1988 prior to suspension of operations in 1994. After the last update, significant changes in DOE regulatory foundation occurred with nuclear safety rule codification in 10 CFR 830, “Nuclear Safety Management.”
To support resumption of transient testing operations, a complete modernization and a significant rewrite of the TREAT safety-basis documents were required to meet 10 CFR 830, Subpart B, “Safety Basis Requirements.” In addition, a completely updated nuclear safety accident analysis was required to support the current operating strategy and a modern safety posture, as well as bound the safe operations of future experiments.
No one clear regulatory format and content template or guide exists for the FSAR and TS for a pulse-type, air-cooled, graphite-moderated DOE reactor such as TREAT. This paper discusses the unique challenges with (1) updating the TREAT safety basis to current DOE regulatory requirements to support the resumption of transient testing operations; (2) documenting that the TREAT design, safety analysis, and operations ensure that the facility is operated safely; and (3) providing an analysis that supports future experiment operations.
The successful approval of the updated TREAT safety basis was a key milestone in the Resumption of Transient Testing Program.