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
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
Front-end nuclear fuel supply cooperation: Turning allied interdependence into strategic advantage
The global nuclear revival, which is fueled by unprecedented demand for firm, affordable, dispatchable power for artificial intelligence and data center build-out, energy security imperatives, and climate commitments, has exposed a structural reality of the Western fuel cycle: No single allied nation currently possesses the full suite of front-end capabilities. From mining through conversion, enrichment, fabrication, and the emerging deconversion and metallization steps required for reactor fuels, capability is distributed across Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States (collectively, the “Sapporo Five”), as well as a small group of close partners.
Shay I. Heizler
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 166 | Number 1 | September 2010 | Pages 17-35
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE09-77
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The diffusion approximation for the Boltzmann (transport) equation suffers from several disadvantages. First, the diffusion approximation succeeds in describing the particle density only if it is isotropic, or close to isotropic. This feature causes the diffusion approximation to be quite accurate for highly isotropically scattering media but to yield poor agreement with the exact solution for the particle density in the case of nonisotropic behavior. To handle general media, the asymptotic diffusion approximation was first developed in the 1950s. The second disadvantage is that the parabolic nature of the diffusion equation predicts that particles will have an infinite velocity; particles at the tail of the distribution function will show up at infinite distance from a source in time t = 0+. The classical P1 approximation (which gives rise to the Telegrapher's equation) has a finite particle velocity but with the wrong value, namely, v/[square root of 3]. In this paper we develop a new approximation from the asymptotic solution of the time-dependent Boltzmann equation, which includes the correct eigenvalue of the asymptotic diffusion approximation and the (almost) correct time behavior (such as the particle velocity), for a general medium.