The development of criticality accident alarm system standards

A brief summary of the historical development of criticality accident alarm system standards since the 1966 meeting of the American Nuclear Society is presented. Technological developments and improvements in standard ANS 8.3 in recent years have lead to a national standard and an international standard providing similar and compatible guidance for the installation, maintenance, and use of criticality alarm systems, and an international standard providing guidance on specification and testing characteristics of equipment to be used in such systems. Suggestions for further improving the standard, specifically, clarification of the detection criteria and evacuation procedures, are discussed