This thesis traces the development of policy and the regulatory framework for the commercial nuclear power industry in the United Kingdom between 1945 and 2005. It is argued that throughout the whole period politicians have legitimised their decisions in terms of a scientific discourse that represents the scientific community as unified and the decisions as thus self-evident. This is illustrated by looking at the key elements of legislation relating to nuclear power in four distinct periods: 1944-8, the introduction of nuclear power; 1973-8, the mortal wounding of nuclear power; 1992-5, the decline of public funding; and 2005-8, the rebirth of nuclear power. In each of the periods identified the key policy developments and legislative initiatives were based on pragmatic considerations. A distinction is made between two types of pragmatic considerations – reactive and proactive. While these types overlap in practice, in some cases the decisions were predominantly reactive and taken in relation to emergencies and global forces, and in others the decisions were predominantly proactive attempts to ensure a suitably balanced and priced energy mix.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense))--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2007. / "March 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-81). Also available via the Internet.

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Thesis (B.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, 1980. / Bibliography: leaf 49. / by Gerald Ellsworth Hammond Jr. / Thesis (B.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, 1980.

No description available.

Thesis. 1979. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alfred P. Sloan School of Management. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Includes bibliographies. / Ph.D.

The current method of determining component failure rates for probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) in the nuclear industry is to take the total number of failures divided by the time over which the failures occurred. The method proposed in this study is the reliability growth method and involves taking into account the fact that the amount of failures per additional year of operation generally decreases yearly because the operational staff becomes familiar with the equipment. The reliability growth method will result in lower component failure rates which when used in PRA studies could result in a lower core melt frequency value. The component failure rate would be expected to be higher in the early stages and should gradually decrease as time goes on. This study will compare the final core melt frequency of the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant using both methods. The Nuclear Power Reactor Data System (NPRDS) data base from the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) was used in this study. The components which were examined for the reliability growth method are motor operated valves, service water pump/motors and emergency diesel generator air chargers. These data were screened to ensure that only true failures were reported. A comparison was made of the overall core melt frequency between the conventional failure rate method and reliability growth method for the motor operated valves. The overall core melt frequency was decreased by 1.8 % when using the reliability growth method compared to the conventional method. / Graduation date: 1993

The National Fire Code of Canada (NFCC) is one model code which regulates hot work in Canada. The code specifies that hot work processes need only create heat to be considered hot work processes, and requires that precautions taken adhere to those in Canadian Standards Association (CSA) W117.2, which is intended for welding, cutting and allied processes. CSA W117.2 requires a 15 m spherical radius of separation in which combustibles are ideally relocated or, at minimum, be protected with fire blankets. Openings, cracks and other locations in which sparks or hot particles must also be protected within this distance. Additionally CSA W117.2 requires a fire watch during, and one hour following the completion of the work. The NFCC stipulates more stringent requirements on the fire watch than CSA W117.2, requiring a check back 4 hours after the work. The code in its current form requires the same precautions be taken when using a soldering iron or epoxy resin as when using an oxyacetylene torch to flame cut steel. The lack of hazard characterization of hot work processes, and the umbrella prescription of required fire safety precautions can result in insufficient measures to prevent fires in some scenarios, and inordinate precautionary measures in others. While not applicable law in all jurisdictions, the NFCC is relied on in various Canadian industries for regulative purposes. Nuclear power generation in Canada is one such industry facing onerous fire protection costs resulting from following these precautions for the smallest of jobs requiring heat producing tools. The literature review highlights the dearth of scientific knowledge regarding the propensity of hot work as an ignition source and how this shortcoming manifests itself in issues across the various standards governing hot work practices. The objective of this research is to assess fire hazards resulting from various processes considered hot work under the National Fire Code of Canada (NFCC). Due to the breadth of processes covered by the NFCC, a spectrum of hot work activities was investigated from processes as innocuous as the application of heated adhesive, to well known sources of ignition such as a variety of welding processes, oxyacetylene cutting and plasma cutting. To streamline the hazard assessment, processes were categorised into three groups based upon expected hazards such that testing could focus on the most prominent ignition danger presented by each. The groups were those processes exhibiting hot surface ignition hazards, processes with hot surface ignition hazards in addition to limited potential to generate hot particles, and those processes in which the generation of significant quantities of spark and hot particles is guaranteed. For the first two process categories, experimentation focused on determining a critical process temperature with which to rank processes and also compare with ignition temperatures of combustibles commonly involved in hot work fires. The critical process temperature was determined as the highest measured temperature of the workpiece or tool during the chosen process and was typically measured with the use of thermocouples and infrared thermography. Characterization of any hot particles in the second category was performed using infrared thermography, and in some cases, thermal paper. Literature sources indicated that sparks and hot particles are the largest factor in hot work fires, so specialised methodology was developed for the third category of processes to characterise the distribution of many thousands of hot work particles generated during welding, thermal cutting and other hot particle producing work. The distributions collected were used to determine the area enveloped by the ignition hazard of hot particles as well as areas encompassing the highest threat to combustibles in relative terms. Several of the processes as studied were found not to exhibit any measurable form of ignition hazard, including forms of manual sanding and filing and rotary filing of steel. Heated adhesive, cutting steel with a reciprocating saw and drilling of steel were shown to exhibit moderate degrees of hazard with temperature rise of 195\degree C or less, suggesting potential hazard to a limited group of combustibles. Welding and cutting processes were shown to have a relative ignition potential across a wide area. Typical welding procedures produced hot particles which travelled a maximum of approximately 3 - 4 m while thermal cutting processes ejected sparks, slag and hot particles up to 9.8 m from the work. Incorporated properly into updated standards and codes, the results and findings of this research could drastically improve the Canadian model codes regarding the regulation of hot work by decreasing cost and difficulty for Canadian Industry without increasing the risk of loss.