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Division Spotlight
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
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
IEA report: Challenges need to be resolved to support global nuclear energy growth
The International Energy Agency published a new report this month outlining how continued innovation, government support, and new business models can unleash nuclear power expansion worldwide.
The Path to a New Era for Nuclear Energy report “reviews the status of nuclear energy around the world and explores risks related to policies, construction, and financing.”
Find the full report at IEA.org.
Keiichi Saito, Yukichi Taji
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 30 | Number 1 | October 1967 | Pages 54-64
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE67-A17242
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Statistical aspects of neutron transport in low-power reactors are studied from the viewpoint of branching processes. The probability generating function of a neutron population originating from an ancestor neutron is expressed in the form of the factorial moment expansion, and it is shown how a factorial moment is constructed out of the lower-order moments. The formalism is based on a physical statement that neutrons occupying a certain set of the prescribed space-time points are composed of subgroups which are chain related to the closest common branching point. The statement is found to be a natural extension of Feynman’s derivation of the well-known formula for Variance-to-Mean Ratio Method of measuring reactor noise. The form of the factorial moment expansion of the one-ancestor problem is applied to counting statistics in reactors with random sources. The result turns out to be the factorial cumulant expansion of the probability generating function of count number. It is shown that all the higher factorial cumulants are successively constructed out of the lower orders. New adjoint fields are introduced. It is pointed out that analysis of reactor noise depends on two models of introducing extraneous neutrons into the system, i.e., the random source model and the burst-of-neutrons model.