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
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
July 2025
Latest News
Hash Hashemian: Visionary leadership
As Dr. Hashem M. “Hash” Hashemian prepares to step into his term as President of the American Nuclear Society, he is clear that he wants to make the most of this unique moment.
A groundswell in public approval of nuclear is finding a home in growing governmental support that is backed by a tailwind of technological innovation. “Now is a good time to be in nuclear,” Hashemian said, as he explained the criticality of this moment and what he hoped to accomplish as president.
S. K. Gupta
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 63 | Number 2 | June 1977 | Pages 193-197
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE77-A27024
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A spectrum of gamma rays containing more than 34 lines arising from concrete walls of the laboratory has been measured with a germanium-lithium-drifted detector having 4-keV resolution for 1332-keV gamma rays. The fact that the gamma rays originate from the concrete is supported by another measurement in which a 5- × 5-cm NaI(Tl) detector was moved near and away from the wall inside a lead-shielded channel intercepting a small portion of the wall and also by a Ge(Li) spectrum taken in another room of the laboratory. The gamma rays have been assigned to 40K and to the daughter products of thorium and uranium. The measured intensities are in good agreement with the decay schemes of the relevant isotopes. Concentrations of thorium, uranium, and potassium in the walls have been obtained from the spectra, and thus it has been shown that high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy can be used as an in situ nondestructive method to assess the contents of thorium and uranium minerals occurring even in an ill-defined geometry. The data also explain the nature of the gamma-ray background for an unshielded detector placed in a concrete building and reveal that most of that background, up to an energy of 8 MeV, originates from the natural radioactivity in the concrete.