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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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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How to talk about nuclear
In your career as a professional in the nuclear community, chances are you will, at some point, be asked (or volunteer) to talk to at least one layperson about the technology you know and love. You might even be asked to present to a whole group of nonnuclear folks, perhaps as a pitch to some company tangential to your company’s business. So, without further ado, let me give you some pointers on the best way to approach this important and surprisingly complicated task.
Donald Bogart
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 41 | Number 1 | July 1970 | Pages 37-46
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE70-A20361
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The problem of precise calculation of spatial distributions of capture in resonance absorbers is crucial to the design of layered shields. Errors in spatial distribution of capture occur in multigroup neutron-transport calculations because of the necessarily broad energy groups employed. The single average-capture cross section in each group results in large underestimates of the capture rates near surfaces of resonance absorbers. Consequently, the spatial-capture gamma-ray generation and escape fraction are also in error. A method is presented for computing spatial-resonance-capture rates in thick layers. It employs group-effective resonance integrals to precalculate group-effective resonance cross sections that are universal functions of distance into the absorptive layer. The method is illustrated for captures in 238U for the energy region 0.5 eV to 100 keV. The method is applied to a spherical reactor-shield configuration that contains alternate layers of depleted uranium and lithium hydride. Detailed comparison is made of the results of a discrete ordinates multigroup calculation with those of the present method. The comparison shows that the difference in spatial-capture distribution of the Sn broad treatment of resonance capture causes the capture gamma-ray dose to be always underestimated. For example, the difference in spatial-capture distribution in a 7-cm slab of 238U causes the leakage dose to be a factor of 2 smaller than that obtained with the present method. The apparent generality of the present method suggests that it may be applied directly to the results of layered shield calculations made by Sn broad-group methods. Application of the method to the experimental variation of epicadmium capture with depth from the surface of metallic-uranium rods up to 5 cm in diameter as measured by Hellstrand provided spatial capture rates that agreed with experiment very well.
