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
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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
Jan 2025
Jul 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2025
Nuclear Technology
January 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Is waste really waste?
Tim Tinsley
I’ve been reflecting on the recent American Nuclear Society Winter Conference and Expo, where I enjoyed the discussion on recycling used nuclear fuel to recover valuable minerals or products for future applications. I have spent more than 30 years focusing on dissolving and separating nuclear material, so it was refreshing to hear the case for new applications being made. However, I feel that these discussions could go further still.
Radiation is energy, something that our society seems to have an endless need for. A nuclear power station produces a lot of radiation that is mostly discarded. But once fuel has been used, it still produces significant levels of radiation and heat energy. The associated storage, processing, and eventual disposal of this used fuel requires careful management and investment to protect systems and people from the radiation. Should we really disregard—and discard—this energy source, along with all the valuable minerals in the used fuel, when we could instead use it to deliver significant value to society?
Hyung Jin Shim, Chang Hyo Kim
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 177 | Number 2 | June 2014 | Pages 184-192
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE13-29
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It is very time-consuming to obtain a high-precision Monte Carlo (MC) estimate of the fuel temperature reactivity coefficient (FTC) through direct subtraction of two reactivity values from MC calculations at two different fuel temperatures. As an alternative to the direct subtraction MC estimate of the FTC, this paper presents a new method based on the adjoint-weighted correlated sampling technique. The new method translates the change in fuel temperature as the corresponding changes in both the microscopic cross sections and the transfer probabilities in scattering kernels described by the free gas model. The effectiveness of the new method is examined through continuous-energy MC neutronics calculations for pressurized water reactor pin cell and CANDU pressurized heavy water reactor lattice problems. The isotope-wise and reaction-type–wise contributions to the FTCs in the two problems are examined for two free gas models: the constant-cross-section and the resonance-cross-section models. It is demonstrated that the new MC method can predict the reactivity change due to fuel temperature variation as accurately as the conventional, more time-consuming direct subtraction MC method.
