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
Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
J. K. Dickens, J. W. McConnell, K. J. Northcutt
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 77 | Number 2 | February 1981 | Pages 146-152
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE81-A21348
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The absolute yields of 28 fission products representing 23 different mass chains produced by thermal-neutron fission of 239Pu and having half-lives between 30 and 1100 s have been determined using Ge(Li) spectroscopy methods. Spectra of 30 gamma rays emitted in the decay of the fission products between 35 and 1950 s after a 5-s irradiation were obtained. Gamma rays were assigned to the responsible fission products by matching gamma-ray energies and half-lives. Fission-product yields were then obtained from the data by first determining the appropriate gamma-ray activity as of the end of the irradiation, correcting for detector efficiency and gamma-ray branching ratio, and, finally, dividing by the number of fissions created in the sample. The number of fissions was determined by direct comparison of gamma rays emanating from fission products created during a careful irradiation of a well-calibrated 239Pu-loaded fission chamber. The resulting fission-product yields are compared with previous measurements and with recommended yields given in two recent (and independent) evaluations. Uncertainties assigned to the present results range between 6 and 45%, and are smaller than or comparable to uncertainties assigned to previous experimental or evaluated yields for six mass chains.