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The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
K. G. Veinot, B. T. Gose, T. G. Davis, J. S. Bogard
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 1 | October 2009 | Pages 17-20
Detectors | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (Part 1) / Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9094
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
At the Y-12 National Security Complex, triage-style assessments are used to identify persons potentially exposed to high doses from criticality accident radiations using portable instruments by assessing the presence of activated sodium atoms in a person's blood. Historically, simple handheld Geiger-Mueller (G-M) probes were used for these purposes although it was recognized that since these instruments contain no information on incident photon energy, it was impossible to differentiate between photons emitted by contamination on the potentially exposed worker from activation of sodium in the person's blood. This work examines the use of a portable gamma spectrometer for assessing blood sodium activation. Irradiations of a representative phantom were performed using two neutron source configurations (unmoderated and polyethylene-moderated 252Cf), and measurements were made using the spectrometer and a G-M detector following irradiation. Detection limits in terms of personnel neutron dose are given for two neutron fields representing metal and solution criticality spectra. Both G-M and spectrometer results indicate a low minimum detectable neutron dose indicating that both instruments are useful as an emergency response instrument. The spectrometer has the added benefit of discriminating between surface contamination and blood sodium activation.