ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
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Latest News
ARPA-E announces $40 million to develop transmutation technologies for UNF
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel into less-radioactive substances. According to ARPA-E, the new initiative addresses one of the agency’s core goals as outlined by Congress: to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, cleanup, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
M. J. Rapp, D. P. Barry, G. Leinweber, R. C. Block, B. E. Epping, T. H. Trumbull, Y. Danon
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 193 | Number 8 | August 2019 | Pages 903-915
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1570750
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The electron linear accelerator housed in the Gaerttner Linear Accelerator Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was used to generate a pulsed neutron source to measure the neutron total cross section of tantalum, titanium, and zirconium from 0.4 to 25 MeV. Neutron transmission measurements were made using the time-of-flight method with neutron flight paths of approximately 100 and 250 m. The long flight paths combined with narrow neutron pulse widths, fast detector responses, fast electronics, and data collection system provide good energy resolution for the measurements. A high signal-to-background ratio through much of the energy range combined with low statistical errors resulted in low uncertainties on cross sections.
The results are presented and compared with the major nuclear data evaluations. Each measurement identifies regions where the neutron total cross sections could be reevaluated. The total cross-section measurements presented here can help nuclear data evaluators improve neutron total cross-section data in future evaluations.