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
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
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
Mar 2025
Jul 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
February 2025
Latest News
NRC begins special inspection at Hope Creek
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is conducting a special inspection at Hope Creek nuclear plant in New Jersey to investigate the cause of repeated inoperability of one of the plant’s emergency diesel generators, the agency announced in a February 25 news release.
G. Palmiotti, M. Salvatores
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 87 | Number 3 | July 1984 | Pages 333-348
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE87-333
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Integral experiments play an essential role in the reduction of design uncertainties related to liquid-metal fast breeder reactor neutronics calculations. Spectrum-dependent integral parameters, such as the critical balance, have been the subject of extensive experimental studies in the various critical facility programs of the leading fast reactor programs in view of the extrapolation of the observed results to power reactors. Space-dependent parameters, such as power distribution perturbation and control rod effects, have also been the subject of large experimental programs, but it has been more difficult to find an unambiguous, systematic approach to extrapolate to the reference power reactors with the particular purpose of defining bias factors and uncertainties to be used in design calculations. Different approaches are recalled in the case of spectrum-dependent integral parameters, and some suggestions are made to define a systematic approach for the space-dependent parameters using the existing critical facilities, i.e., reduced-size cores and limited fuel inventories.