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 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
David Regnier, Olivier Litaize, Olivier Serot
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 174 | Number 1 | May 2013 | Pages 103-108
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE12-12
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The average total prompt neutron multiplicity [nu with overbar] of 252Cf spontaneous fission is investigated as a function of the total kinetic energy TKE and the mass split of the fragments through the code FIFRELIN. This Monte Carlo device, already described in a previous work, aims at simulating the neutron evaporation from fission fragments. The observables and TKE and the light fragment mass AL are recorded from a sample of 107 fission events. The analyzed results show a value for the inverse of the slope [[partial differential][nu with overbar](TKE)/[partial differential]TKE]-1 equal to -11.0 MeV/n. In addition to this, the average number of neutrons per fission [nu with overbar](TKE, AL) is determined for every possible TKE and AL. For every fragment mass ratio, differences in behavior between [nu with overbar](TKE, AL) versus TKE and [nu with overbar](TKE) with no discrimination made with regard to AL are observed. Those differences are explained by the TKE dependency of fission yield. The approximation consisting of ignoring this TKE dependency of mass yield when calculating the [nu with overbar](TKE) slope is discussed. We estimate that such a calculation could lead to a significant bias on the absolute value of [partial differential][nu with overbar](TKE)/[partial differential]TKE and could explain the discrepancies between calculations found in the literature.
