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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Adrienne L. Lehnert, Kimberlee J. Kearfott
Nuclear Technology | Volume 188 | Number 1 | October 2014 | Pages 97-111
Technical Paper | Radiation Measurements and General Instrumentation | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-125
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fast neutron interrogation for explosives detection has shown potential for the screening of sea-land cargo containers. Simulations were completed investigating the neutron scatter behavior of 14.1-MeV fast neutrons in such screening scenarios. Earlier efforts centered on Monte Carlo (MCNP5) simulations to identify flags or on specific calculations based on photons or neutrons produced as a result of fast neutron interaction that signal the presence of the explosive RDX (C2H6N6O6). Those simulations consisted of simplified target geometry; artificially collimated neutron source; and generalized organic, hydrogenous, or metallic types of cargo materials. In this study, the MCNP5 simulation was expanded to include a more accurate representation of the neutron source, target geometry, detector response, and realistic and varied container contents. The flags found using the earlier simulations were applied to the more realistic scenario models in order to determine the feasibility of the use of flags in a detection algorithm. Additional flags utilizing the simulated detector response were also investigated. The conditions under which specific flags were preferable were also examined. It was found that many flags performed well independent of the cargo type while others, such as those using only neutron backscatter, were more highly dependent on cargo type. Furthermore, many of the best-performing flags were those that did not require stringent neutron spectroscopy and would therefore be feasible with existing technology.