Bernan Press

Competency assessments for nuclear industry personnel. (CD-ROM included)

Whether for purposes of employee selection, trainee evaluation, qualification, re-qualification or authorization, the nuclear industry relies upon competency assessment tools to keep plants running and safe. This gives developers, trainers and administrators tools to assess the knowledge, skills and attitudes of those who have undergone training. It describes the purposes of testing training, including employee selection and job placement, promotion, motivation, program evaluation and feedback on training, the bases for examinations, including selection and overview of assessment methods, development of written examinations, including content issues, trainee access to materials and scoring rubrics, oral examinations, including development of a testing process (such as boards), practical performance assessments, computer-aided exams, examination methods to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of training, reliability and validity of exams, and test item analysis. Appendices give a range of templates, tools and standards. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Database of prompt gamma rays from slow neutron capture for elemental analysis. (CD-ROM included)

This process has proven to be valuable as a non-destructive nuclear method. Materials scientists, geologists, and specialists in mining, archeology, environmental science, food analysis and medicine will find this database helpful in determining isotropic composition, total and partial thermal radiative cross-sections, Westcott factors, prompt and delayed energies of gamma rays, decay modes, half-lives and branching ratios in prompt gamma activation analysis (PGAA) projects. It includes nomenclature, (including Westcott factors), neutron spectral shape dependent formalism, characteristics of PGAA facilities, benchmarks and reference materials, neutron separation energies (along with the aforesaid thermal neutron capture cross-sections), data sources and evaluation of methodology and the adopted database and user tables. The CD-ROM includes the database viewer and PGAA data files, the evaluated gamma ray activation file, a PGAA database evaluation and the isotope viewer along with related documents. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Economic performance indicators for nuclear power plants.

Prepared for the benefit of nuclear plant managers and operators, this identifies and defines a range of performance measures for plants operating in deregulated, competitive electricity markets. It gives the implications of utility deregulation and electricity market competition, describes the rationale for performance indicators, including potential indicators, and then identifies and describes those indicators, including production cost, staffing level, nuclear O&M cost, refueling outage of planned maintenance, fuel cost, training costs, heavy water costs, annual capital investment, inventory levels, indirect costs, energy price, return on investment, return on equity and maintenance backlog. It offers strategies for improvements, including business literacy development and continued development of economic measures. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Neutron reflectometry; a probe for materials surfaces; proceedings.

Neutron reflectrometry has a number of useful applications, including the characterization of thin films and layered structures, polymers, oxide coatings on metals, and biological membranes; investigation of magnetic materials; and location of low z elements in the presence of high z elements (useful in biology and polymer science). This volume contains the proceedings of a technical meeting on neutron reflectrometry that was organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency and held in Vienna in August of 2004. Thirteen papers are presented in all, discussing such topics as neutron reflectrometry applications to soft matter, principles of reflectrometry with reactors and pulsed sources, investigation of oxide films and corrosion, design of a neutron reflectometer at a research reactor, application of polarized neutron reflectrometry, and neutron specular reflectrometry theory. The papers also include reports on neutron reflectrometry activities in Australia, Germany, India, Greece, and Hungary. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)