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
September 2026
Nuclear Technology
August 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
In transition: Commercializing fusion power
Commercial fusion power is closer than ever. There are now around 30 U.S. fusion companies, several of which claim to be on track to connect to the grid as early as the 2030s.
Tokamak and laser inertial confinement approaches benefit from decades of research at facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and ITER, with alternative concepts including stellarator, magnetic mirror, and Z-pinch confinement also making notable progress as private and government funding for fusion increases.
L. Green
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 66 | Number 1 | April 1978 | Pages 127-134
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE78-A15197
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The shape of the thorium absorption cross section near thermal energies was investigated. This shape is dominated by one or more negative energy resonances whose parameters are not directly known but must be inferred from higher energy data. Since the integral quantity most conveniently describing the thermal cross-section shape is the Westcott g-factor, effort was directed toward establishing this quantity to high precision. Three nearly independent g-factor estimates were obtained from measurements on a variety of foils in three different neutron spectra provided by polyethylene-moderated neutrons from a 252Cf source and from irradiations in the National Bureau of Standards “Standard Thermal Neutron Density.” The weighted average of the three measurements was 0.990 ± 0.009. This is in good agreement with two recent evaluations and supports the adequacy of the current cross-section descriptions.