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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Aljaž Čufar, Bor Kos, Ivan Aleksander Kodeli, Igor Lengar, Žiga Štancar, Luka Snoj
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 71 | Number 2 | February 2017 | Pages 162-176
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST16-113
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The application of the Automated Variance Reduction Generator (ADVANTG) code to accelerate MCNP neutron transport calculations in fusion-relevant geometries is presented. The ADVANTG code generates variance-reduction parameters using the Consistent Adjoint Driven Importance Sampling (CADIS) and Forward-Weighted Consistent Adjoint Driven Importance Sampling (FW-CADIS) methods based on deterministic transport calculations performed by the discrete ordinates code Denovo. The aim of ADVANTG is to reduce the MCNP computational time by automating the process of variance-reduction parameter generation. ADVANTG was tested on a simplified model of a JET-like tokamak that in spite of its simplicity retains all the major characteristics of such a tokamak. The performance of the nuclear data libraries provided with ADVANTG and of various other ADVANTG/Denovo settings on variance-reduction efficiency was tested. Several cases using deuterium-deuterium or deuterium-tritium (D-T) volumetric (plasma) sources and 252Cf or D-T point neutron sources were analyzed to find guidelines for successful use of the code for fusion applications. Additionally, the use of ADVANTG as a tool to identify major neutron pathways from the neutron source to the detector is demonstrated.
