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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.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.”
Tae-Hoon Lee, Young Soo Kim, Hee-Sung Shin, Ho-Dong Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 176 | Number 1 | October 2011 | Pages 147-154
Radiation Measurements and General Instrumentation | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A12549
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A passive neutron coincidence counter for nuclear material measurement of the advanced spent fuel conditioning process (ACP) has been developed by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) since 2003 and was deployed in a hot cell of the ACP Facility (ACPF) in 2005. The most dominant neutron source among the spontaneous fission nuclides contained in spent fuel is 244Cm. To obtain the neutron counting rates of the singles, doubles, and triples coincidences of the neutron counter with an increment of the 244Cm mass, a hot test of the neutron counter was performed in 2007 with several spent fuel rod-cuts in the ACPF hot cell. The source term of the spent fuel rod-cuts was obtained using the ORIGEN-ARP burnup simulation code, and a set of preliminary calibration curves of the neutron counter for 244Cm was generated. The calibration curves were also obtained from the results of an MCNPX code simulation, but there was a wide difference of [approximately]30% in the slope of the double-rate calibration curve between the measurements and the MCNPX results. Chemical analysis results of the spent fuel samples were obtained in September 2008, and it was found that the difference between the measurements and the MCNPX results is due to an error in the declared burnup since the chemical analysis burnups of the samples differ from the declared ones by [approximately]10%. The expected burnup of each rod-cut was also obtained from the results of self-multiplication correction for the 244Cm mass of the rod-cuts, and the difference between the expected burnup results and the chemical analysis results is <2%. This study shows high performance of the neutron coincidence counter for 244Cm measurements of spent fuel and also shows that the burnup of spent fuel samples can be obtained through a series of ORIGEN-ARP code simulations if it is possible to acquire the measurement data of neutron counting rates for 244Cm of the samples.
