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
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
S. Oliver, S. Morató, B. Juste, R. Miró, G. Verdú, N. Tejedor, J. Pérez-Calatayud
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 198 | Number 2 | February 2024 | Pages 264-273
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2192312
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
High-energy radiotherapy treatments of a medical Linear Accelerator (LinAc) generate secondary neutrons that can produce health damage on the human body as the induction of secondary cancers. The energy spectrum of these neutrons must be determined to estimate the extra dose received by patients inside a radiotherapy room during radiotherapy treatment. To quantify the neutron production, a Ludlum Bonner sphere spectrometer (BSS) is used for measurement at different points of a LinAc bunker at the Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe de València. With the neutron measured data and a set of response detector curves obtained by Monte Carlo simulations with MCNP6.1.1, the Maximum Likelihood Expectation Maximization unfolding method is used to unfold the energy neutron spectrum. Unfolded neutron spectra at different locations were compared to those obtained by Monte Carlo simulation of the same setup, showing the same energetic behavior. The fluence rate decreases with source distance, and the shape changes from a fast neutron peak in the nearest LinAc head location to a prominent thermal neutron peak in the bunker maze region. Moreover, the neutron ambient equivalent dose was obtained from the unfolded spectra and compared to Berthold detector measurements, being consistent.