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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.
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Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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.
William A. Yingling, Charles J. Bridgman
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 53 | Number 2 | February 1974 | Pages 123-136
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE74-A23338
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new approximation based on continued fractions is defined that yields simple closed-form solutions to the single-velocity time-dependent Boltzmann equation in a homogeneous, isotropic infinite medium. The approximation is developed for an isotropic Green’s function source with both absorption and scatter. The method is based on the development of the complete continued fraction solution of the infinite set of time-dependent P-N equations in transform space. The approximation then consists of truncating the continued fraction after a number of terms, which is shown to be equivalent to the standard P-N approximation; then, unlike the standard P-N approximation, the discarded portion of the continued fraction is replaced with a closed function. For low-order approximations, the result can be successfully inverted, yielding useful closed-form approximate solutions which demonstrate excellent temporal and spatial resolution, particularly near the wave front. Both spherically symmetric and one-dimensional plane geometries are treated. In spherical geometry, the approximation offers a closed-form solution for the time-dependent flux emanating from a point source in a scattering medium such as is of current interest in atmospheric transport studies. In an example presented in this paper, a low-order continued fraction approximation does exhibit a wave front and compares well with a time-dependent numerical calculation (TDA). In plane geometry, the method offers closed-form approximate solutions which may be of interest in the study of neutron waves. An example is presented and compared to a numerical evaluation of an exact solution by Erdmann. The continued fraction approximation compares favorably with Erdmann’s data and can be easily evaluated at positions other than the spatial origin. Finally, in the case of reduction to steady state, the continued fraction approximation predicts fluxes which closely approximate the asymptotic portion of an exact solution presented years ago by Case, de Hoffmann, and Placzek.