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Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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NRC cuts fees by 50 percent for advanced reactor applicants
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced it has amended regulations for the licensing, inspection, special projects, and annual fees it will charge applicants and licensees for fiscal year 2025.
Sherly Ray, R. S. Modak
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 170 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 75-86
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE10-87TN
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Numerical evaluation of the steady-state neutron flux distribution in a slightly subcritical nuclear reactor due to the presence of a fixed external source is considered by using neutron diffusion theory. It has been shown in the literature that in the particular case when keff is very close to unity (say, within 1 mk), many solution techniques face severe convergence problems. In this context, an acceleration method called Accelerated SubCritical Multiplication (ASCM), originally suggested in the well-known neutron transport code TORT, is investigated in this paper specifically for such cases. The studies are based on a realistic heavy water reactor test case analyzed by two-group diffusion theory. ASCM is found to work very well. It is useful even when the distributions of the external source and the fission source are vastly different. ASCM is based on iterative scaling of the overall flux level in the reactor. An alternative way to evaluate the “scaling factor” is discussed. A somewhat new ASCM-like scheme is suggested to accelerate the Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel iterations needed for the within-group calculations. Conditions for the effectiveness of this scheme are discussed. Implications of the present work in reactor kinetics and some other fields are indicated.