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2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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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.
E. Barnard, N. A. Khan, R. C. F. Mclatchie, M. J. Poole, J. H. Tait
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 17 | Number 4 | December 1963 | Pages 513-522
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE63-A18441
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the experiment to be described the 28 Mev electron linac at Harwell was used as a neutron source to produce 1 µsec bursts of 1011 electrons 160 times per second. A natural uranium target was placed centrally against one face of a 60 cm x 62.2 cm x 71.1 cm graphite block, and a neutron beam extracted from a channel running into the center of the block. This beam was interrupted by a slow chopper running in synchronism with the pulses from the accelerator. In this way 100 µsec “time samples” of the neutrons in the block were taken and their spectrum determined by the time-of-the-flight method. The instant of the “time sample” relative to the fast neutron pulse could be varied by an electronic delay circuit. Neutron spectra are presented for the time varying between 300 µsec and 1000 µsec after the pulse. These spectra differ from the Maxwellian shape but approach asymptotically to a “cooled Maxwellian” from which they are indistinguishable after 1000 µsec. Detailed calculations of the spectra have been made using an IBM 7090 computer to obtain a numerical solution of the time and energy dependent diffusion equation; using a scattering kernel based on the scattering measurements made at Chalk River. The experimental results are also compared with spectra using a scattering kernel based on the heavy gas model with a fictitious mass of 33.