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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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.”
Nicolo’ Abrate, Alex Aimetta, Sandra Dulla, Nicola Pedroni
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 12 | December 2023 | Pages 2977-2999
YMSR Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2190861
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The development of new reactor technologies requires careful assessments of the various sources of epistemic uncertainties. In this work, nuclear data uncertainties featuring the main isotopes of the U/Th molten salt fast reactor (MSFR) design are propagated through Monte Carlo calculations to quantify the final uncertainty on some relevant integral parameters. In the first part of this paper, some best-estimate calculations are performed by selecting different nuclear data libraries, showing the remarkable impact of this choice on the final responses. Then the Generalized Perturbation Theory routine available in Serpent 2 is adopted for a preliminary sensitivity and uncertainty analyses with respect to keff, highlighting a significant discrepancy between the covariance of the JEFF-3.3 and ENDF/B-VIII.0 libraries. After the selection of a few relevant nuclides, namely, 7Li, 19F, 232Th, and 233U, the Total Monte Carlo method and the unscented transform (UT) are then adopted to estimate the uncertainty of other responses of interest like the conversion ratio and some multigroup constants. Some potential issues of the UT are highlighted, and a mitigation strategy is applied. A relevant result of this analysis concerns the need for better data evaluations for the nuclides constituting the circulating salt for an effective deployment of the MSFR technology.
