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.
Division Spotlight
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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!
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May 2025
Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
W. N. McElroy, S. Berg, T. B. Crockett, R. J. Tuttle
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 36 | Number 1 | April 1969 | Pages 15-27
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE69-A18853
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A multiple foil activation iterative method has been used to experimentally determine neutron flux spectra in various types of neutron environments. The method involves irradiation of a set of different foil detectors, measurement of resultant activities, and adjustment of a spectrum selected as an initial approximation to obtain a good-fit solution for a set of simultaneous activation integral equations. A computer code, SAND-II, is used to obtain this solution. Spectra from thermal and fast reactors and from beam sources have been measured. In each experiment, a set of more than ten foil detectors, encompassing low- and high-energy neutron-induced reactions, was irradiated and used as input to SAND-II. Solutions obtained are compared with diffusion, transport, or Monte Carlo calculations or with spectrometer measurements. It is concluded that the multiple foil activation iterative method is an important adjunct to calculational and neutron spectrometer techniques used to determine neutron flux spectra.