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Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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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BREAKING NEWS: Trump issues executive orders to overhaul nuclear industry
The Trump administration issued four executive orders today aimed at boosting domestic nuclear deployment ahead of significant growth in projected energy demand in the coming decades.
During a live signing in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump called nuclear “a hot industry,” adding, “It’s a brilliant industry. [But] you’ve got to do it right. It’s become very safe and environmental.”
W. Haeck, B. Cochet, L. Aguiar
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 171 | Number 1 | May 2012 | Pages 52-68
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE10-99
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To take the production of isomeric states into account during the irradiation of a material, a depletion code needs the proper isomeric branching ratio s for every isomeric state s produced in a reaction. The composition of some nuclides such as, for example, 238Pu and some Cm isotopes is quite sensitive to the value of the isomeric branching ratio for the 241Am neutron capture reaction. Existing depletion codes use constant burnup-independent values for the isomeric branching ratio data, which were calculated in advance for a particular type of spectrum (e.g., pressurized water reactor, boiling water reactor, or fast reactor systems). In this paper, we propose a burnup-dependent treatment using evaluated nuclear data from ENDF files as a function of the irradiation history. This treatment has been implemented into the VESTA Monte Carlo depletion code using both the multigroup binning approach and Monte Carlo estimators. The validity and usefulness of this new treatment has been demonstrated using experimental data from the MALIBU program and has shown that it improves the prediction of 242mAm when using JEFF 3.1 data. It is also shown that more work is required on the measurement and evaluation of the cross-section data for the Am isotopes in general and the energy-dependent 241Am branching ratio in particular to improve the results of depletion calculations.