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
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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
April 2025
Latest News
Penn State and Westinghouse make eVinci microreactor plan official
Penn State and Westinghouse Electric Company are working together to site a new research reactor on Penn State’s University Park, Pa., campus: Westinghouse’s eVinci, a HALEU TRISO-fueled sodium heat-pipe reactor. Penn State has announced that it submitted a letter of intent to host and operate an eVinci reactor to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on February 28 and plans to engage with the NRC on specific siting decisions. Penn State already boasts the Breazeale reactor, which began operating in 1955 as the first licensed research reactor at a university in the United States. At 70, the Breazeale reactor is still in operation.
J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr.
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 5 | Number 4 | April 1959 | Pages 207-214
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE59-A25585
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A simple analytic formula is derived for the values of the prompt neutron density, the delayed neutron emitter densities, and the period in a reactor at the instant it has becòme prompt critical under the assumption that it has been brought to a prompt critical state from an arbitrary subprompt critical initial state by introducing reactivity at the constant rate of a dollars per second. For a fixed value of a, these formulas are asymptotic with respect to small values of the dimensionless parameter al/β, in which l is the mean lifetime of a neutron in the reactor and β is the fraction of fission neutrons which are delayed. For fast reactors, the quantity l/β is generally small, so that our formulas should be useful in estimating the power rise at prompt critical unless the rate of introduction of reactivity is quite large.