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
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
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
Prepare for the 2025 Nuclear PE Exam with ANS guides
The next opportunity to earn professional engineer (PE) licensure in nuclear engineering is this fall, and now is the time to sign up and begin studying with the help of materials like the online module program offered by the American Nuclear Society.
J. C. Robinson, D. N. Fry
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 42 | Number 3 | December 1970 | Pages 397-405
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE70-A21226
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Small pressure perturbations were introduced into the primary fuel pump bowl of the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) operating at its nominal power of 8 MW(th). The experimental neutron flux-to-pressure frequency response was then obtained from a cross-power and auto-power spectral density analysis of the resulting signals from a neutron sensitive ionization chamber and a pressure transducer. By comparing the frequency dependence of the experimental frequency response determined for the reactor operating at power with the frequency response determined from analysis of mathematical models, the selection of the more appropriate boundary condition set from a choice of two possible boundary condition sets was possible. Then, the analytical frequency response was fitted by the least-squares method to the experimental frequency response to obtain the void fraction in the molten salt fuel. A void fraction of 0.61 ± 0.04% was determined from the frequency response; this value compares favorably with a value of 0.6 ± 0.1% determined by other techniques. Conclusions from this work are that the analytical model leads to acceptable results for the neutron flux-to-pressure frequency response and that properly designed dynamic tests involving small reactivity perturbations (introduced by means other than rod motion) can be used to extract specific nuclear parameters for a nuclear system operation at power.