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 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
H. W. Lefevre, J. C. Davis, J. D. Anderson
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 70 | Number 1 | April 1979 | Pages 60-65
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE79-A18927
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
When collectively accelerated deuterons in pulsed electron beam machines interact with structural materials and insulators, they produce neutrons that can be used for diagnostic purposes. This paper describes a method for synthesizing neutron spectra that such devices might produce. It involves averaging experimental nuclear reaction data over angle and over energy to approximate the distributions in angle and in energy of deuterons as they impinge upon materials. Neutron time-of-flight (TOF) spectra were obtained using the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory tandem Van de Graaff accelerator and a 16-detector TOF spectrometer. Spectra were recorded at each of 16 angles for deuterons having energies of 2.5, 3.0, and 3.5 MeV on thick targets of carbon, aluminum, Teflon, CH2, and CD2. When summed over 4π sr at constant neutron energy to approximate (for example) the neutron spectrum from isotropic mono-energetic deuterons, the 19F(d,n) and 27Al(d,n) spectra still show well-resolved high-energy peaks at each bombarding energy. The synthesized TOF spectra that would be observed for such a case with pulse mode detectors and those that would be observed with current mode scintillation detectors are presented.