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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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Latest News
DOE-EM awards $37.5M to Vanderbilt University for nuclear cleanup support
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management announced on January 16 that it has awarded a noncompetitive financial assistance agreement worth $37.5 million to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., to aid the department’s mission of cleaning up legacy nuclear waste.
P. F. Nichols
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 17 | Number 1 | September 1963 | Pages 144-148
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE63-A17219
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Reactivity measurements have been made in the Physical Constants Testing Reactor (PCTR) on a series of plutonium-aluminum rods with 0.65 in. diam and 31.00 in. long. The samples were contained in a cadmium cover during the measurements. The series of rods consisted of eight sets of two rods each. Two separate batches of plutonium with different isotopic compositions were used in the two rods within a set. The concentrations of plutonium in the alloys were adjusted in such a manner that (1) the two rods within a set differed effectively only in Pu240 content, and (2) the rod with the most Pu240 in one set had the same quantity of Pu240 as the rod with the least Pu240 in an adjacent set. The difference in reactivity measured between the rods in a set is the result of different resonance absorption rates in Pu240 in the two rods. The sensitivity of the reactor to epicadmium absorption in Pu240 was obtained by calibrating the system with three sets of rods that were all very nearly dilute in Pu240 concentration. The experimental data yield effective resonance integrals of Pu240 for the remaining rods relative to the dilute resonance integral. The value of the effective resonance integral for the rod with the highest concentration of Pu240 is a factor of about seven smaller than the dilute integral.
