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 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
Douglas E. Peplow, Kuruvilla Verghese
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 135 | Number 2 | June 2000 | Pages 103-122
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE00-A2128
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Differential sampling is a powerful tool that allows Monte Carlo to compute derivatives of responses with respect to certain problem parameters. This capability has been implemented within an in-house Monte Carlo code that simulates detailed mammographic images from two new digital systems. Differential sampling allows for the calculation of the first and all second derivatives of all of the different tallies computed by the code as well as the first and second derivatives of the mammographic image itself with respect to material parameters, such as density and cross sections. The theory behind differential sampling is explained, the methodology for implementation into the imaging code is discussed, and two problems are used to demonstrate the power of differential sampling.