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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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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.
B. Juste, R. Miró, G. Verdú, S. Díez, J. M. Campayo
Nuclear Technology | Volume 175 | Number 1 | July 2011 | Pages 175-181
Technical Paper | Special Issue on the 16th Biennial Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division / Radiation Transport and Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A12287
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Megavoltage sources are commonly used in radiotherapy treatments, and the determination of the spectral distribution of a photon beam is extremely important for exact dosimetry and for the calculation of therapeutic dose distributions. Since direct measurements of the spectrum are very difficult, we present a technique to accurately calculate the bremsstrahlung spectra based on a numerical reconstruction upon central-axis depth dose data measured in a water tank using inverse methods.The basic idea of this technique is that the measured depth dose curve can be expressed as a weighted superposition of monoenergetic depth dose curves. While traditional approaches directly use the measured depth dose data, we show the improvement of using the gradient of these data for reconstruction. The inverse problem in terms of gradients is shown to be markedly less ill-conditioned than the usual inverse problem. In each case, a Tikhonov regularization is introduced to minimize the effects of noise due to measurement and computation. We illustrate this theory to calculate a 6-MeV photon beam from an Elekta Precise radiotherapy unit utilizing the gradient of depth dose measurements in a water tank.