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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
IAEA project aims to develop polymer irradiation model
The International Atomic Energy Agency has launched a new coordinated research project (CRP) aimed at creating a database of polymer-radiation interactions in the next five years with the long-term goal of using the database to enable machine learning–based predictive models.
Radiation-induced modifications are widely applicable across a range of fields including healthcare, agriculture, and environmental applications, and exposure to radiation is a major factor when considering materials used at nuclear power plants.
Richard Babut, Olivier Bouland, Eric Fort
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 151 | Number 2 | October 2005 | Pages 135-156
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE05-A2536
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Evaluated data are adjusted on experimental measurements using nuclear reaction models. Among these data, those concerning alpha-particle interactions on light nuclei are not well known, although crucial for neutron emission problems via (,n) processes in nuclear fuels (oxide, carbide, nitride). Examples of applications are reprocessing, packaging and storage of radioactive waste, and intrinsic neutron source term evaluation in critical and subcritical reactors (accelerator-driven systems). The goal is the modeling of (,n) reactions on oxygen isotopes to extract the resonance parameters. The SAMMY code, which relies on the Reich-Moore approximation of the R-matrix theory, is used. In the most recent version, the SAMMY code allows the study of the in- and outgoing charged-particle channels. An important validation of this new feature has been made. In addition, a manifest lack of experimental data for this type of reaction has been underlined. Finally, the impact of the new pointwise description of the (,n) reaction cross section on the energy distribution calculation of the intrinsic neutron source of an irradiated mixed-oxide fuel pin is shown and compared to the standard calculation, which uses average cross sections.