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
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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
Aug 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2024
Latest News
New laws offer nuclear industry incentives for existing power plant uprates
This year, the U.S. nuclear industry received a much-needed economic boost that could help preserve operating nuclear power plants and incentivize upgrades that extend their lifespan and power output.
Signed into law in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act offers production tax credits (PTCs) for existing nuclear power plants and either PTCs or investment tax credits (ITCs) for new carbon-free generation. These credits could make power uprates—increasing the maximum power level at which a commercial plant may operate—a much more appealing option for utilities.
Matthew C. Cordaro, Martin S. Zucker
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 45 | Number 2 | August 1971 | Pages 107-116
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE71-A20878
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A computer-based method for treating the motion of charged and neutral particles called the phase space time evolution (PSTE) method has been developed. This technique, instead of utilizing the integrodifferential transport equation and solving it by computer methods, makes direct use of the computer by employing its bookkeeping capacity to literally keep track of the time development of a phase space distribution of particles. This method is applied in this paper to a study of electron transport. In this application use is made of the continuous slowing down approximation for energy degradation and the Goudsmit-Saunderson distribution for multiple scattering. The specific problem investigated considers a 1-MeV beam of electrons normally incident on a semi-infinite slab of aluminum. Results of the PSTE calculation for this problem are compared with existing Monte Carlo calculations and experimental results on the basis of number transmission, energy spectrum, and angular distribution as a function of penetration. The general agreement exhibited is good. In addition to the above, time-dependent PSTE electron penetration results for the same problem are presented. The computer time required to make the PSTE calculation discussed here was ≈ 10 min on the CDC-6600 computer at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Noteworthy is that during this small amount of machine time, the PSTE method generates both deterministic and time-dependent results.