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
Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
James R. Sheff, Robert W. Albrecht
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 26 | Number 2 | October 1966 | Pages 207-221
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE66-A28163
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The theory of space-dependent stochastic fluctuations is applied to several specific geometries to illustrate the space-dependence of the correlation and spectral-density functions. One-energy-group diffusion theory is used throughout to avoid clouding the geometric effects with other effects and to simplify the calculations. The first calculations are made in the infinite medium. The resulting cross-correlation and cross-spectral-density functions are shown to yield auto-correlation and spectral-density functions which differ strikingly from the usual point-reactor result. It is shown, however, that the point-reactor result is identical to the result obtained in an infinite reactor with a uniformly distributed detector. The effect of boundaries upon the fluctuations is examined from both the point of view of a finite detector and systems involving one or more boundaries. The case of the unreflected homogenous cubical reactor is solved. The results of cross-correlation and spectral-density calculations are displayed. The special case of the auto-correlation and spectral-density functions is compared to the point-reactor or space-independent result to show that significant departure from space independence is to be expected if detectors are placed away from axes of symmetry. This latter result obtains even when the extraneous source distribution is assumed to be fundamental mode.