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
August 2026
Nuclear Technology
July 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The deadline arrives: Checking in on the Reactor Pilot Program
On May 23, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14301, “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the DOE,” which instructed the Department of Energy to create a Reactor Pilot Program (RPP)—a new system in which companies could pursue DOE authorization to build and test their first-of-a-kind nuclear technologies. EO 14301 set an ambitious goal for that program: three reactors achieving criticality by July 4, 2026.
L. E. Beghain, F. Hofmann, S. Wilensky
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 27 | Number 1 | January 1967 | Pages 80-84
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE67-A18044
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A pulse of monoenergetic fast neutrons of several nanoseconds duration is used to excite a lead assembly. The neutron decay is measured as a function of assembly size with conventional nanosecond time-of-flight equipment. The neutron detector is biased to eliminate all nonelasticly scattered neutrons. A theoretical relationship has been developed by Paik which relates the assembly size to the measured decay constant. The nonelastic cross section appears as a parameter in Paik's theory and can be chosen to give the best fit to the experimental data. Decay constants were measured at 2.1 and 1.7 MeV for lead assemblies 20-in. wide x 20-in. high and thicknesses from 1 to 8 in. Paik's theory assumes the establishment of an asymptotic spacial decay mode. This assumption was verified by measuring the neutron decay at various positions of the assembly. The results show that it takes the order of 10 to 15 nsec to establish a spacial mode. This method has been used to measure the total nonelastic cross section for lead at 2.1 and 1.7 MeV.