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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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Powering the future: How the DOE is fueling nuclear fuel cycle research and development
As global interest in nuclear energy surges, the United States must remain at the forefront of research and development to ensure national energy security, advance nuclear technologies, and promote international cooperation on safety and nonproliferation. A crucial step in achieving this is analyzing how funding and resources are allocated to better understand how to direct future research and development. The Department of Energy has spearheaded this effort by funding hundreds of research projects across the country through the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP). This initiative has empowered dozens of universities to collaborate toward a nuclear-friendly future.
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.