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.
Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
May 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Securing the advanced reactor fleet
Physical protection accounts for a significant portion of a nuclear power plant’s operational costs. As the U.S. moves toward smaller and safer advanced reactors, similar protection strategies could prove cost prohibitive. For tomorrow’s small modular reactors and microreactors, security costs must remain appropriate to the size of the reactor for economical operation.
David J. Loaiza, F. Eric Haskin
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 134 | Number 1 | January 2000 | Pages 22-36
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE00-A2097
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The product of cumulative yield and probability of neutron emission is used to assess the relative importance of known delayed neutron precursors. Thirteen precursors are consistently dominant. Nonlinear fits to experimental delayed neutron decay data distinguish the decay constants of the three longest-lived dominant precursors: 87Br, 137I, and 88Br. Sensitivity calculations based on a six- to seven- group transformation lead to a proposed seven-group formulation in which the group decay constants are those of dominant precursors: 87Br, 137I, 88Br, 93Rb, 139I, 91Br, and 96Rb. An alternative six-group formulation is obtained by using the mean of the 137I and 88Br decay constants for group 2. The use of the suggested dominant precursor decay constants improves the goodness of fit to experimental data compared to that obtained from nonlinear least squares in which both group yields and decay constants are determined empirically. Reactivity worth and transient analyses confirm that the positive reactivity scale is preserved in the transformation. A known bias in the negative reactivity scale is eliminated by forcing the half-life of the longest-lived group to be the 55.9-s half-life of 87Br. The proposed use of dominant precursor decay constants offers significant simplifications in data analysis and the analysis of fast, epithermal, and thermal reactors with multiple fissioning nuclides.