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
September 2026
Nuclear Technology
August 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
In transition: Commercializing fusion power
Commercial fusion power is closer than ever. There are now around 30 U.S. fusion companies, several of which claim to be on track to connect to the grid as early as the 2030s.
Tokamak and laser inertial confinement approaches benefit from decades of research at facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and ITER, with alternative concepts including stellarator, magnetic mirror, and Z-pinch confinement also making notable progress as private and government funding for fusion increases.
C. R. Adkins, T. E. Murley, M. W. Dyos
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 36 | Number 3 | June 1969 | Pages 336-350
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE69-A18732
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The well-known approximations used for finding multigroup cross sections and the Doppler coefficient are examined to determine their validity. The method involves comparing the approximate methods of one fast-reactor cross-section code (MC2) with a more rigorous treatment which removes most of the approximations. The unresolved resonance region makes a considerable contribution to the Doppler coefficient in fast reactors, and this region is treated more precisely by generating pseudo resonances using random sampling techniques within the Breit-Wigner single level formalism. A procedure is developed which ensures that the generated pseudo resonances are consistent with measured pointwise data. The resonance data is used in an ultra-fine energy group integral transporttheory code which treats the space-dependent slowing down problem in a very precise manner. A numerical comparison between the approximate methods used in MC2 and those used in the more rigorous calculations is made for a mixed carbide, sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor. Aside from some very significant detailed differences, it is shown that the approximations used in MC2 are not too severe, and that the code is adequate for determining the multigroup cross sections and the Doppler coefficient. The more rigorous method is a very time consuming and detailed procedure not well suited for design calculations. It is intended to serve as a standard, to which more approximate methods can be compared.