ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
Takanobu Kamei, Tadashi Yoshida, Toshikazu Takeda, Takuya Umano
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 91 | Number 1 | September 1985 | Pages 11-33
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE85-A17126
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The prediction accuracy of the burnup characteristics of large liquid-metal fast breeder reactors (LMFBRs) is very hard to evaluate because of the unavailability of the direct experimental information. A quantitative evaluation was performed on the accuracy of the burnup property by use of the sensitivity coefficients in a large LMFBR and the covariance matrix of nuclear data. Also evaluated was the decrease in prediction error when the cross-section set was adjusted by the use of experimental data, such as criticality, reaction rate ratios, and others. It was concluded that accuracy with the direct use of current nuclear data is ±30% for burnup reactivity loss and ±5% for breeding ratio. On the other hand, the accuracy would be improved to ±18% and ±2.5% by utilizing the experimental data obtained on the zero-power plutonium reactor assembly.