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• CECOP

  Operations Coordination Centre set up by the government offices in autonomous communities in Spain; it coordinates all the actions envisaged in the Nuclear Emergency Plans.

• Capture, nuclear reaction

  Nuclear reaction where the atom incorporates an external subatomic particle.

• Chemical element

  Substance formed by atoms with the same number of protons, although they can have a different number of neutrons. Its chemical behaviour is always the same, irrespective of its isotopic composition. (See "Enrichment".)

• Cladding

  A fuel element that hermetically encloses the nuclear fuel preventing the fission products from escaping and guaranteeing mechanical strength to ensure the fuel's integrity.

• Collective dose

  The effective dose a certain group of people have been exposed to. It is measured in person-sieverts (p-Sv).

• Committed collective dose

  Committed dose that will be received by a certain group of individuals during a 50-year period. It is measured in person-sieverts (p-Sv).

• Committed dose

  The effective dose that a person will receive during the next 50 years (70 years for children) as a result of the amount of radioactive material intake into their organism. It is measured in sieverts (Sv).

• Container

  A container designed to hold spent fuel or radioactive material in order to facilitate its transport or storage.

• Containment

  Structure used to house nuclear or radioactive facilities in order to reduce the possibility of environmental contamination. In nuclear power plants, the containment structure consists of a steel plate cladding and a 90 cm thick concrete wall, and it houses the reactor and the primary circuit.

• Control rod

  A rod-shaped element used to control the reactivity of a nuclear reactor. Inserting the control rods into the reactor's core leads to the cessation of the nuclear chain reaction.

• Controlled area

  According to legislation, an area where, owing to the existence of a source of ionising radiation, it is possible to receive more than 3/10 of the annual dose limits established for professionally exposed workers. Established within the controlled area are the limited presence area, when there is a risk of exceeding the annual dose limits, and the prohibited access area, when there is a risk of exceeding in one single exposure the annual dose limits.

• Cooling

  Reduction in the activity of a radioactive material by means of decay.