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
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
Front-end nuclear fuel supply cooperation: Turning allied interdependence into strategic advantage
The global nuclear revival, which is fueled by unprecedented demand for firm, affordable, dispatchable power for artificial intelligence and data center build-out, energy security imperatives, and climate commitments, has exposed a structural reality of the Western fuel cycle: No single allied nation currently possesses the full suite of front-end capabilities. From mining through conversion, enrichment, fabrication, and the emerging deconversion and metallization steps required for reactor fuels, capability is distributed across Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States (collectively, the “Sapporo Five”), as well as a small group of close partners.
R. A. Bennett
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 17 | Number 1 | September 1963 | Pages 131-143
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE63-A17218
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Integral experiments have been conducted to study rethermalization in moderating media having temperature discontinuities. Neutron absorption rates of Cu63, Au197, and Lu176 have been observed near these discontinuities in the temperatures of concentric annuli of graphite and of water and graphite systems. For this report the data have been analyzed with a two-thermal-group diffusion model of the space and energy distribution of the thermal neutrons. Cross sections and relaxation distances for neutron rethermalization in water and graphite have been inferred from the analyses. These rethermalization cross sections are integral representations of the scattering kernel. The relaxation distances were found to be shorter for the rethermalization of cold neutrons in warm graphite than for the rethermalization of warm neutrons in cold graphite. The cross section of hot graphite for rethermalization of 300°K neutrons increases monotonically to near the free gas value, 0.0614 cm−1, as the graphite temperature increases to 850°K. The cross section of 300°K graphite for rethermalization of 850°K neutrons is well below the free gas value, in agreement with theoretical calculations. Within the limits of the heavy gas model one can define an effective mass in terms of the rethermalization cross section. Effective masses of graphite reported here are comparable with those inferred by others from lattice-spectrum measurements. The rethermalization cross sections of 300°K water presented here yield effective masses of the water molecule that lie in the range of 4.1 to 7.2 amu for 410 to 720°K neutrons, respectively.