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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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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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. Zobel, F. C. Maienschein, J. H. Todd, and G. T. Chapman
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 32 | Number 3 | June 1968 | Pages 392-406
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE68-A20222
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Determining the contribution of secondary gamma rays to the radiation dose produced by charged particles in space requires a knowledge of the cross sections for gamma-ray production by protons and alpha particles. The only data of this type that have been available have been for ∼145-MeV protons. In the experiment reported here, gamma-ray spectral measurements were made for protons of 16, 33, 56, and 160 MeV and alpha particles of 59 MeV incident on targets of low- and medium-Z materials. Absolute spectra were obtained, generally in the backward direction, with coincidence (pair) or anticoincidence (total-absorption) scintillation spectrometers. The analysis method used to correct for the imperfect spectrometer response yielded quantitative error estimates for the resultant spectra. A few measurements were made in the forward direction or at 90° to distinguish deviations from isotropy which were marked only for 16-MeV protons incident on a carbon target. From the spectra, cross sections were obtained for the production of specific gamma rays. Tables of these results include the probable nuclear reactions which produced the gamma rays. The production cross sections are plotted vs the average proton energy in the target for individual gamma rays for C and O. For each element, these individual production cross sections are added and the sums, which decrease with increasing proton energy, are compared with the total nonelastic cross sections predicted on the basis of intranuclear cascade calculations. The reasonably smooth variations of the total cross sections for gamma-ray production with atomic number are also shown. The proton inelastic scattering cross sections for specific levels correspond within error to 14-MeV neutron scattering data.