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
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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
Jun 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
July 2024
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
NRC engineers share their expertise at the University of Puerto Rico
Robert Roche-Rivera and Marcos Rolón-Acevedo are licensed professional engineers who work at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They are also alumni of the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez (UPRM) and have been sharing their knowledge and experience with students at their alma mater since last year, serving as adjunct professors in the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. During the 2023–2024 school year, they each taught two courses: Fundamentals of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Nuclear Power Plant Engineering.
Benjamin R. Betzler, Brian C. Kiedrowski, William R. Martin, Forrest B. Brown
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 192 | Number 2 | November 2018 | Pages 115-152
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1497397
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For a nuclear system in which the entire -eigenvalue spectrum is known, eigenfunction expansion yields the time-dependent flux response to any arbitrary source. Applications in which this response is of interest include pulsed-neutron experiments, accelerator-driven subcritical systems, and fast burst reactors, where a steady-state assumption used in neutron transport is invalid for characterizing the time-dependent flux. To obtain the -eigenvalue spectrum, the transition rate matrix method (TRMM) tallies transition rates describing neutron behavior in a discretized position-direction-energy phase space using Monte Carlo. Interpretation of the resulting Markov process transition rate matrix as the operator in the adjoint -eigenvalue problem provides an avenue for determining a large finite set of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of a nuclear system. Results from the TRMM are verified using analytic solutions, time-dependent Monte Carlo simulations, and modal expansion from diffusion theory. For simplified infinite-medium and one-dimensional geometries, the TRMM accurately calculates eigenvalues, eigenfunctions, and eigenfunction expansion solutions. Applications and comparisons to measurements are made for the small fast burst reactor CALIBAN and the Fort St. Vrain high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. For large three-dimensional geometries, discretization of the large position-energy-direction phase space limits the accuracy of eigenfunction expansion solutions using the TRMM, but it can still generate a fair estimate of the fundamental eigenvalue and eigenfunction. These results show that the TRMM generates an accurate estimate of a large number of eigenvalues. This is not possible with existing Monte Carlo–based methods.