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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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What’s in your Dubai chocolate? Nuclear scientists test pistachios for toxins
For the uninitiated, Dubai chocolate is a candy bar filled with pistachio and tahini cream and crispy pastry recently popularized by social media influencers. While it’s easy to dismiss as a viral craze now past its peak, the nutty green confection has spiked global pistachio demand, and growers and processors are ramping up production. That means more pistachios need to be tested for aflatoxins—a byproduct of a common crop mold.
N. J. Pattenden
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 17 | Number 3 | November 1963 | Pages 371-380
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE63-A17385
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The ORNL chopper has been used to measure the neutron total cross sections of samples of fission product samarium and iodine in the thermal and resonance energy regions. At 2200 meters/sec, the total cross section of Sm151 was found to be (15000 ± 1800) barns, and the absorption cross section of I129 (28.0 ± 2) barns. The variation of cross section of Sm151 with energy in the thermal region was found to be strongly affected by a bound level, but in the case of I129 the absorption cross section could be described by a “1/V” dependence. In the higher energy region, resonance parameters were obtained for Sm151, I127, and I129 by area analysis of the observed transmission dips. In addition, a shape analysis method was used for the lower energy resonances in Sm151. The following values for the level spacings and strength functions (per spin state), and resonance absorption integrals were obtained:
