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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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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Shifting the paradigm of supply chain
Chad Wolf
When I began my nuclear career, I was coached up in the nuclear energy culture of the day to “run silent, run deep,” a mindset rooted in the U.S. Navy’s submarine philosophy. That was the norm—until Fukushima.
The nuclear renaissance that many had envisioned hit a wall. The focus shifted from expansion to survival. Many utility communications efforts pivoted from silence to broadcast, showcasing nuclear energy’s elegance and reliability. Nevertheless, despite being clean baseload 24/7 power that delivered a 90 percent capacity factor or higher, nuclear energy was painted as risky and expensive (alongside energy policies and incentives that favored renewables).
Economics became a driving force threatening to shutter nuclear power. The Delivering the Nuclear Promise initiative launched in 2015 challenged the industry to sustain high performance yet cut costs by up to 30 percent.
E. R. Gaerttner, M. E. Jones, D. E. McMillan, J. B. Sampson, T. M. Snyder
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 3 | Number 6 | June 1958 | Pages 758-771
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE58-A25509
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Measurements of two independent types have been made of the reactivity effect in a thermal test reactor of samples of U235, U233, Pu239, and Pu241. From these measurements average subcadmium values of eta () relative to of U235 are obtained independently of other knowledge of the average absorption cross sections. Average absorption cross sections are also obtained from the measurements. Values of () for U233, Pu239, and Pu241 are respectively 2.231 ± 0.034, 1.927 0.024, and 2.213 ± 0.07. The corresponding value of η (0.0253 ev) of Pu239 is found to be 2.025. A presentation of the method and results are given together with a comparison with previous work.
