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
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Aug 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
August 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Chris Wagner: The role of Eden Radioisotopes in the future of nuclear medicine
Chris Wagner has more than 40 years of experience in nuclear medicine, beginning as a clinical practitioner before moving into leadership roles at companies like Mallinckrodt (now Curium) and Nordion. His knowledge of both the clinical and the manufacturing sides of nuclear medicine laid the groundwork for helping to found Eden Radioisotopes, a start-up venture that intends to make diagnostic and therapeutic raw material medical isotopes like molybdenum-99 and lutetium-177.
Kirk A. Mathews
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 132 | Number 2 | June 1999 | Pages 155-180
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE99-A2057
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Discrete ordinates calculations are presumed to translate particles from cell to cell in the directions specified in the angular set. This should result in uncollided particles from a small source propagating through the spatial mesh in narrow beams in these directions. Accurate high-order angular quadratures presume accurately attenuated propagation in the intended directions. This work examines the ability of various spatial quadratures to propagate rays correctly. Some widely used methods are shown to fail at this fundamental task. Diamond-difference approximations introduce undamped lateral oscillations, resulting in severely unphysical flux representations. Nonlinear fixups can prevent negativity but do not correct the underlying failure to properly propagate rays. First-moment conserving schemes tend to be successful but can be degraded in performance by simplifying approximations that are often used. Characteristic schemes are shown to have significant advantages. New characteristic methods are developed here that are exact (in a certain sense) in propagating rays and that uncouple the calculation of adjacent spatial cells in the mesh sweep. This enables DO loops to be converted to DO INDEPENDENT loops, with obvious implications for vector and/or parallel implementations.