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
Jul 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2026
Nuclear Technology
July 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The deadline arrives: Checking in on the Reactor Pilot Program
On May 23, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14301, “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the DOE,” which instructed the Department of Energy to create a Reactor Pilot Program (RPP)—a new system in which companies could pursue DOE authorization to build and test their first-of-a-kind nuclear technologies. EO 14301 set an ambitious goal for that program: three reactors achieving criticality by July 4, 2026.
Ely M. Gelbard, Albert G. Gu
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 117 | Number 1 | May 1994 | Pages 1-9
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE94-A13564
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The derivation of the standard expression for the Monte Carlo eigenvalue bias is reviewed. It is noted that the bias is due to the repeated normalization of the fission source by the eigenvalue. This normalization can be partially or completely eliminated, but when this is done, the variance in the eigenvalue may increase unacceptably. Thus, it seems impractical, in general, to eliminate the bias in this way. Next, the Brissenden-Garlick relation between eigenvalue bias and variance is rederived for nonanalog tracking and estimation. From this relation, it is shown that the eigenvalue bias under “normal conditions is smaller than the eigenvalue’s standard deviation. In this sense, the bias is not significant, so that it is not crucially important to eliminate or to estimate it.