[en] PNRA Regulations on Radiation Protection-PAK/904 Rev.0 were issued in 2004 and were based on International Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Ionizing Radiation and for Safety of Radiation Sources (BSS-115). Regulations-PAK/904 describe the regulatory requirements for occupational radiation protection that are applicable to all nuclear and radiation facilities in Pakistan. The International Commission on Radiological Protection published the recommendations for radiation protection and safety of sources (ICRP 103) in 2007. Subsequently, the IAEA revised BSS-115 and published General Safety Requirements (GSR Part 3) in 2014. PNRA initiated the process of revision of PNRA Regulations -PAK/904, Rev-0 in 2016 on the basis GSR Part 3 and issued revised Regulation- PAK/904, Rev-1 in 2020. GSR Part 3 introduces the concept of three types of exposure situations i.e. planned, existing and emergency exposure situations and GSR Part 3 classifies radon expo- sure into occupational and public exposure. According to UNSCEAR Report 2008, the world average dose due to background radiation is 2.4mSv that is mainly due to radon. The ICRP 103 expresses reference level as activity i.e. 1500 Bq/m3 for workplaces and 600 Bq/m3 for homes [3], whereas, GSR Part 3 recommends the activity levels of 1000 Bq/m3 for an occupational exposure, and 300 Bq/m3 for the public exposure. The new and revised requirements in Regulations PAK-904 includes; establishment of dose constraints for occupational exposure, calibration of radiation monitors from authorized service providers, establishment of radiation protection program and control of occupational exposure in remediation of areas with residual radioactive material. Moreover, the revised Regulations-PAK/904 also include new values of dose limits for the lens of eye (i.e. 20mSv/y) based on GSR Part 3 and ICRP publication 118 and values of reference levels for radon to control occupational exposure at workplaces. (author)

[en] The excitation functions of "6"6","6"7","6"8Ga, "6"2","6"3","6"5Zn, "6"1","6"4Cu, and "5"8","6"0Co radionuclides in the "n"a"tCu(α, x) reaction were measured in the energy range from 15 to 42 MeV by using a stacked-foil activation method at the MC-50 cyclotron of the Korean Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences. The measured results were compared with the literature data as well as the theoretical values obtained from the TENDL-2013 and TENDL-2014 libraries based on the TALYS-1.6 code. The integral yields for thick targets of the produced radionuclides were also determined from the measured excitation functions and the stopping power of natural copper

[en] The PNRA Regulations PAK/904 describes mandatory regulatory requirements for radiation protection that apply to nuclear and radiation facilities operated in Pakistan. In 2007, the International Commission on Radiological Protection provided the suggestions for radiation protection and safety of sources in its publication named ICRP 103. Therefore in 2014, the IAEA amended the document on Radiation Protection and Safety of Radiation Sources and published the new document titled IAEA General Safety Requirements (GSR Part 3). Furthermore, the IAEA also has performed an Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) mission in Pakistan that provided some recommendations and suggestions to revise the national requirements for radiation protection. In this paper, the gap between PAK/904 and GSR Part 3 is identified through detail analysis. Furthermore, the importance to incorporate the new IAEA requirements in national regulations and its implementation in Pakistan is discussed in detail. As the new requirements are essential from the perspective of radiation protection, the discussions about the mechanism of implementation are useful for the regulatory bodies, which are in the process of revising their national requirements after the IAEA GSR Part 3 publication. The IAEA GSR Part 3 is a new document. Consequently, experience feedback and mechanism for GSR Part 3 implementation is not available, and is still under debate in many countries including Pakistan. The PNRA fully complies with international standards and requirements, especially the IAEA standards.

[en] The Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) is an independent and competent regulatory body, empowered with the full scope of regulatory powers required by the IAEA standards. The Government provides the resources necessary to support PNRA’s rapid expansion. The PNRA is responsible for controlling, regulating and supervising all matters related to nuclear safety and radiation protection measures in the Pakistan. To ensure the safe operation of the nuclear power plants in Pakistan, The PNRA is conducting effective regulatory activities for licensing, inspection, enforcement, lessons learned and emergency preparedness for nuclear power plants. The PNRA puts safety as its first priority, and has established its regulatory framework for nuclear and radiation safety. This includes internal processes to review applications and submissions, and documentation of the basis for recommendation on licensing decision. Areas of improvements are suggested to ensure completeness and consistency of the existing regulatory framework, including in the regulations themselves and in the guidance provided to licensees. This paper, presents the comparison of the PNRA practice with international practice in the field of authorization, inspection, enforcement, regulations and guides, and emergency preparedness and response. After detailed study of national regulations and comparison with IAEA documents, some important points are suggested. These points need to consider by the regulatory body to enhance nuclear safety at the installation in Pakistan.

[en] Among the prospective nuclear reactor-produced radionuclides, ytterbium-175 (175Yb) is found to be suitable for the preparation of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals due to its decay characteristics (T1/2 (4.18d), Emax (480 keV)). It is an important metal that belongs to the rare earth metal family. However, a major constraint for its production via the (n, γ) reaction is the presence of lutetium-177 (177Lu) impurity alongside the 175Yb, which is co-produced upon irradiation of a natural ytterbium (Yb) target 1. In this study, the reaction cross-section via the (n, p) reaction is calculated using lutetium-175 (175Lu) as the target material.

[en] In this article, we propose quantum position verification (QPV) schemes where all the channels are untrusted except the position of the prover and distant reference stations of verifiers. We review and analyze the existing QPV schemes containing some pre-shared data between the prover and verifiers. Most of these schemes are based on non-cryptographic assumptions, i.e. quantum/classical channels between the verifiers are secure. It seems impractical in an environment fully controlled by adversaries and would lead to security compromise in practical implementations. However, our proposed formula for QPV is more robust, secure and according to the standard assumptions of cryptography. Furthermore, once the position of the prover is verified, our schemes establish secret keys in parallel and can be used for authentication and secret communication between the prover and verifiers. (paper)

[en] The present measured values are compared with the data in both the EXFOR library, evaluated nuclear data library ENDF/B-VII.1 [2] and the TENDL-2013 library based on the TALYS 1.6 code. Neutron activation cross sections induced in "2"7Al at 15.2, 26.4 and 37.2 MeV were measured by the activation and off-line gamma spectroscopy technique by using quasi-mono energetic neutron fields from the "9Be(p,xn) reactions. Quasi-mono-energetic neutron sources from the "9Be(p,xn) reaction for proton beam energies of 25, 35 and 45 MeV at KIRAMS were used. The present measured values were compared with theoretical model TENDL-2013, ENDF/B-VII. and with results from earlier measurements. The present results are in a good agreement with the experimental literature data

[en] Highlights: • Facile synthesis of tri-phase direct dual S-scheme ZnO–V₂O₅-WO₃ heterostructured NC and pure ZnO, V₂O₅, and WO₃ NPs. • SEM, EDX, XRD, Raman, FTIR, and UV–vis was carried out. • The photocatalytic performance was tested against MB, CR, RhB, MO, SO, and MR dyes. • S-scheme is more efficient than other schemes for enhancing photocatalytic activity. • The antibacterial test against different bacteria strain was performed. In this work, tri-phase direct dual S-scheme ZnO–V₂O₅–WO₃ heterostructured nanocomposite and pure ZnO, V₂O₅, and WO₃ nanoparticles were synthesized by using a facile co-precipitation approach to investigate antibacterial and photocatalytic characteristics of the grown nanocomposite. The physical properties of as-synthesized products were examined by employing characterization techniques such as Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and UV–vis spectroscopy. The XRD results confirmed the formation of pristine ZnO, V₂O₅, WO₃ nanoparticles and the existence of diffraction peaks related to hexagonal phase ZnO, orthorhombic V₂O₅, and monoclinic phase of WO₃ in ZnO–V₂O₅–WO₃ nanocomposite. The variation in structural parameters was studied by SSP, Scherrer plot, and W–H models. The energy bandgap of nanocomposite (2.63 eV) was calculated from UV–vis spectroscopy, which indicated the usability as a photocatalyst under direct sunlight. FTIR and Raman's spectra also supported the formation of the ZnO–V₂O₅–WO₃ nanocomposite. Spherical and roughly hexagonal morphology were seen in SEM images. EDX analysis has confirmed the existence of Zn, V, W, and O in the nanocomposite. The antibacterial test against Klebsiella pneumonia, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus Vulgaris, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria showed higher activity. The photocatalytic performance of the ZnO–V₂O₅–WO₃ nanocomposite (99.8%) was the highest against methylene blue (MB) as compared to pure ZnO (78.8%), V₂O₅ (85.8%), and WO₃ (80.0%) under natural sunlight. The degradation efficiency of ZnO–V₂O₅–WO₃ against cresol red (CR), rhodamine-B (RhB), methyl orange (MO), safranin-O (SO), and methyl red (MR) dyes was 67.0%, 86.6%, 98.0%, 76.8%, and 99.0%, respectively, under direct sunlight in 80 min. Different schematic models are designed to illustrate the photocatalytic reaction mechanism, whereas the separation of charge carriers and enhanced photocatalytic performance can be efficiently explained by S-scheme.

[en] The cross sections of the ${}^{96}$Zr(n, 2n)${}^{95}$Zr, ${}^{90}$Zr(n, 2n)${}^{89}$Zr, and ${}^{90}$Zr(n, 3n)${}^{88}$Zr reactions with the average neutron energies of 13.8-31.33 MeV were measured by using the activation and an off-line γ-ray spectrometric technique. The cross sections for the ${}^{96}$Zr(n, 2n)${}^{95}$Zr reaction at the average neutron energies of 18.91 MeV and 25.81 MeV, for the ${}^{90}$Zr(n, 2n)${}^{89}$Zr reaction at 28.74 MeV as well as for the ${}^{90}$Zr(n, 3n)${}^{88}$Zr reaction in the average energies of 27.37 MeV and 31.33 MeV are the first time measurements. The fast neutrons were generated by using the ${}^9$Be(p, n) reaction with the proton energies of 25-, 35- and 45-MeV from the MC-50 Cyclotron at the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences (KIRAMS). The neutron spectra were simulated by using the computer code MCNPX 2.6., whereas the experimental neutron fluxes were monitored based on the ${}^{27}$Al(n, α)${}^{24}$Na reaction. The cross sections for the ${}^{96}$Zr(n, 2n)${}^{95}$Zr, ${}^{90}$Zr(n, 2n)${}^{89}$Zr, and ${}^{90}$Zr(n, 3n)${}^{88}$Zr reactions induced by mono-energetic neutrons were also calculated by using the TALYS 1.9 code. The present results are compared with the literature data and the theoretical values, and are found to be in good agreement.

[en] In this work, the structural, electrical, and antibacterial properties of novel Mg_0.95Cr_0.05O and Mg_0.9Cr_0.05M_0.05O (M = Co, Ag, Ni) nanocrystals were studied. The simple, low-cost, and efficient co-precipitation method was used for the synthesis of required products and characterized by different analytical techniques such as XRD, FTIR, Raman, and I–V. The XRD study inveterated the substitution or incorporation of (M = Co, Ag, Ni) dopants deprived of disturbing the basic FCC structure of magnesium oxide. The average crystalline size and micro-strain were calculated from XRD data using different methods. The FTIR revealed the existence of Mg–O, Mg–O–Mg, and Mg–O-M bond, which confirmed the doping of (M = Co, Ag, Ni) in MgO host lattice. The Raman spectra also confirm the existence of optical phonon modes related to MgO. IV curve exhibits the improvement in the optical conductivity by co-doping. The antibacterial performance was tested against gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus bacteria.