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Division Spotlight
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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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!
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Latest News
First astatine-labeled compound shipped in the U.S.
The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”
Martina Kloos, Jörg Peschke
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 153 | Number 2 | June 2006 | Pages 137-156
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE06-A2601
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The MCDET method for probabilistic dynamics is a combination of Monte Carlo (MC) simulation and the Discrete Dynamic Event Tree (DDET) approach. The implementation of MCDET works in tandem with any appropriate deterministic dynamics code.MCDET was developed to achieve a more realistic modeling and analysis of complex system dynamics in the framework of probabilistic safety analyses. It is capable of accounting for aleatory (stochastic) uncertainties, which are the reason why the safety assessment is probabilistic, and for epistemic (state-of-knowledge) uncertainties, which determine the precision of the probabilistic assessment. In MCDET, discrete aleatory variables are generally treated by the DDET approach, whereas continuous aleatory variables are handled by MC simulation. For each set of values provided by the MC simulation, MCDET generates a new DDET.The paper gives a description of the MCDET method and an overview of the results that may be obtained from its application. The results presented were derived from an application of MCDET in combination with the deterministic dynamics code MELCOR for integrated severe accident simulation. For illustration purposes, the consequences in a German nuclear power plant after a station blackout were analyzed.