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 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Standards Program
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Dec 2025
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
December 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
November 2025
Latest News
3D-printed tool at SRS makes quicker work of tank waste sampling
A 3D-printed tool has been developed at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina that can eliminate months from the job of radioactive tank waste sampling.
A. Rastas, J. Saastamoinen
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 36 | Number 3 | June 1969 | Pages 351-360
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE69-A18733
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Neutron rethermalization has been studied, experimentally and theoretically, in a system intended to reproduce the conditions of the Kottwitz problem. Terphenyl and light water were used as the moderators at the temperatures 223 and 11°C, respectively. The energy spectrum of the angle-dependent neutron flux perpendicular to the plane discontinuity was measured in terphenyl as a function of the distance from the discontinuity by means of an extraction channel and a choppertime-of-flight analyzer. The spatial behavior of the flux-weighted average energy was determined by fitting a Maxwellian to each measured spectrum using the method of the least squares. This spatial behavior could be satisfactorily described by a simple one-exponential function for distances exceeding 3 mm (measured from the discontinuity). The least-squares fit gave a value of 11.3 mm for the relaxation length. The theoretical calculations were performed by an approximate method using the “two overlapping-groups” approximation for the energy dependence. For the angular dependence of the flux, both the Pn(n =1,3)- and the DPn(n = 1)-approximation was used. Three different scattering models were used for each moderator. Rather good agreement with the theory and the experiment was achieved as to both the form of the spectrum and the spatial behavior of the average energy.