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
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
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
Felix Pino, Jessica C. Delgado, Matteo Polo, Erica Fanchini, Anna Selva, Joana Minga, Gianmarco Torilla, Lodovico Ratti, Sandra Moretto
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 10 | October 2024 | Pages 1975-1984
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2024.2304993
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper describes the characterization of a fast neutron facility located at Legnaro National Laboratories’ Van de Graaff CN accelerator. The neutron flux is produced by the Be() reactions, generated by a beryllium thick target bombarded with 5-MeV protons. An iterative unfolding algorithm combined with a pulse shape discrimination technique were used to obtain the energy distributions of the emitted neutrons at different angles and to compute the absolute neutron flux as a function of the proton current. With a proton current of 180 nA and a distance of 5 cm from the emission point, a maximum neutron flux of 2.6 10 cm−2 s−1 (15%) was obtained.
The gamma-ray component made up around 32% of the total radiation field. The measurements were taken with a Stilbene scintillation detector, therefore a comprehensive study of the detector was also performed, including energy calibration, determination of the proton light output function, and intrinsic neutron detection efficiency. Based on the results and the capabilities of the Stilbene detector, it can be concluded that this detector is suitable for fast neutron flux characterization. It enables quick measurements and real-time monitoring of the neutron field.