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Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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Christmas Night
Twas the night before Christmas when all through the houseNo electrons were flowing through even my mouse.
All devices were plugged in by the chimney with careWith the hope that St. Nikola Tesla would share.
Brandon Distler, Steve Baker, Jordan Gladden (Transware Enterprises), Hatice Akkurt (EPRI)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 925-930
Cask Loader, an EPRI software system is a relational database program that facilitates the automated selection of candidate spent fuel assemblies for placement into dry cask storage canisters from spent fuel pools. Cask Loader allows users to compute the decay heat values for an extended burnup range using a modified regulatory guidance approach. Due to increased efficiency in operation, the number of assemblies with higher burnups increased exponentially within the past two decades. The NRC Regulatory Guide 3.54, published in 1999, set applicability limits for burnup that are below the current operational experience. Subsequently, within the past decade, the need for extending the burnup ranges significantly increased. Only two measurement points are available for extended burnup range. Analyses were performed for these two points and extended by including additional typical and hypothetical PWR and BWR assemblies. For this study, decay heat values were computed using Cask Loader and ORIGEN and were then compared against each other. The computational results showed that compared to ORIGEN, Cask Loader overestimates the decay heat values without any exception and therefore can be considered conservative in its estimation of decay heat values for high burnup range. In this paper, the comparative decay heat values are presented.