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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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!
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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.”
Masao Yamanaka, Cheol Ho Pyeon, Tsuyoshi Misawa
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 184 | Number 4 | December 2016 | Pages 551-560
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE15-107
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In an accelerator-driven system (ADS), the effective delayed neutron fraction βeff is required for subcriticality measurements in order to convert measured reactivity in dollar units into pcm units. Here, an alternative calculation methodology with source-dependent reaction rates is proposed to estimate the subcriticality (pcm units) with an external neutron source for the newly defined parameter βRRsource . In the proposed methodology, the parameter is obtained by the k-ratio method with reaction rates considering the external neutron source (fixed-source calculation) and is compared with that obtained by the eigenvalue calculations (MCNP6.1). To investigate its applicability to the estimation of subcriticality, subcriticality measurements by the extrapolated area ratio method are carried out in the experiments in ADS at the Kyoto University Critical Assembly, with the variation of subcriticality (pcm units) and the spectrum of the external neutron source. Then, βRRsource is estimated by the proposed methodology with MCNPX-2.5.0. The measured subcriticality with the use of βRRsource obtained by the fixed-source calculations shows good agreement with that obtained by the different measurement methodology and MCNPX-2.5.0. Through the subcriticality estimation, the applicability of the proposed methodology is confirmed for different subcriticality levels and the spectrum of the external neutron source.
