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 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
Front-end nuclear fuel supply cooperation: Turning allied interdependence into strategic advantage
The global nuclear revival, which is fueled by unprecedented demand for firm, affordable, dispatchable power for artificial intelligence and data center build-out, energy security imperatives, and climate commitments, has exposed a structural reality of the Western fuel cycle: No single allied nation currently possesses the full suite of front-end capabilities. From mining through conversion, enrichment, fabrication, and the emerging deconversion and metallization steps required for reactor fuels, capability is distributed across Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States (collectively, the “Sapporo Five”), as well as a small group of close partners.
Wayne K. Lehto, John M. Carpenter
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 33 | Number 2 | August 1968 | Pages 225-237
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE68-A20660
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fission rate fluctuations at low power in a reactor with a large fission-product inventory have been observed in the pool-type Ford Nuclear Reactor. A gaseous Cerenkov detector was used to sense the high-energy, prompt-fission gamma rays in the presence of a fission-product gamma field of 105 to 106 R/h. The ratio β/l is determined from the cross power spectral density of the fluctuations in the signals from two of these detectors. Both this spectrum and the power spectral density of the output of a single detector show a large low-frequency component. This is attributed to moderator temperature fluctuations present when the fission-product decay heat is removed by natural circulation of the coolant. The temperature fluctuations as measured with a short-time-constant thermocouple are shown to be correlated to those in the fission rate. The detector is described, as well as a basis for calculating its performance and efficiency. A theory of the gamma noise experiment that reveals the effects of the detector on the measured spectrum is presented.