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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Latest News
No impact from Savannah River radioactive wasps
The news is abuzz with recent news stories about four radioactive wasp nests found at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The site has been undergoing cleanup operations since the 1990s related to the production of plutonium and tritium for defense purposes during the Cold War. Cleanup activities are expected to continue into the 2060s.
William J. Walters, Nathan J. Roskoff, Alireza Haghighat
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 192 | Number 1 | October 2018 | Pages 21-39
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1497395
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Real-time Analysis for Particle transport and In-situ Detection (RAPID) code uses a unique, extremely fast, fission matrix–based methodology to compute the eigenvalue, and three-dimensional, pinwise fission source distribution for reactor, spent fuel pool, and spent fuel cask problems. In this paper, the RAPID fission matrix method is described and analyzed for application to several large pressurized water reactor problems, based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency Monte Carlo Performance Benchmark problem. In the RAPID methodology, fission matrix coefficients precalculated using the Serpent Monte Carlo code, are then coupled together and solved for different core arrangements. A boundary correction method is used to obtain more accurate fission matrix values near the radial and axial reflectors. Eigenvalues and fission source distributions are compared between RAPID and Serpent reference calculations. In most cases, the eigenvalue differences between methods are less than 10 pcm. For a uniform core model, pinwise fission distributions between the methods differ by a root-mean-square value of , compared to a Serpent uncertainty of . The pinwise, axially dependent (100 axial levels) differences are , compared to a similar Serpent uncertainty of . To achieve these levels of uncertainty, the RAPID calculations are over 2500 times faster than Serpent, not counting the precalculation time.