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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2026
Nuclear Technology
July 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Launching into tomorrow: NRIC guides new era of research and deployment
In June 2025, the Department of Energy announced the Reactor Pilot Program, an authorization pathway that allowed reactor developers to partner with the DOE to get first-of-a-kind (FOAK) reactors built and tested. Soon after, the DOE rolled out a complementary Fuel Line Pilot Program, which aimed to fast-track fuel projects. In all, 20 projects were accepted into the new programs.
P. K. Sarkar, Herbert Rief
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 124 | Number 2 | October 1996 | Pages 291-308
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE96-A28579
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The amounts of change in the variance and in the efficiency of nonanalog Monte Carlo simulations for certain variations in the biasing parameters are important quantities when optimizing such simulations. Anew approach, based on the differential operator sampling technique, is outlined to estimate the derivatives of variance and efficiency with respect to the biasing parameters; the same simulation constructed to solve the primary problem is used. An algorithm requiring the first- and higher order derivatives of the natural logarithm of the second moment to predict minimum-variance-biasing parameters is presented. Equations pertaining to the algorithm are derived and solved numerically for an exponentially transformed one-group slab transmission problem for various slab thicknesses and scattering probabilities. The results indicate that optimization of nonanalog simulations can be achieved so that the present method will be useful in self-learning Monte Carlo schemes.