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
Jun 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2026
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2026
Latest News
Breaking ground on a new approach to construction
The drive to Kairos Power’s reactor demonstration site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is not only scenic—it’s historic. Nearly 85 years ago, roughly 30,000 construction workers transformed orchards and farmland into a key Manhattan Project site. Depending on your route, you may pass by one of the three gatehouses that were once military checkpoints controlling access to Atomic Energy Commission production facilities.
M. G. Silbert
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 51 | Number 4 | August 1973 | Pages 376-384
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE73-A23273
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The neutron-induced fission cross section of 249Cf was measured from 13 eV to 3 MeV. Neutrons from the Physics-8 underground nuclear explosion traversed a 240-m vertical evacuated flight path and interacted at ground level with a 249Cf sample and with neutron flux monitors. Abundant fission was observed throughout the neutron energy region studied, although the several-MeV cross section was lower than expected on the basis of systematics. Forty-three resonances between 15 and 70 eV were parameterized using a multilevel R-matrix formalism. In this energy region, the average level spacing, corrected for five postulated unobserved levels, was 1.07 ± 0.14 eV, both spin states of the compound nucleus being taken together. Assuming both spin states to have the same properties, the s-wave neutron strength function per spin state 〈〉/〈D〉 was (1.5 ± 0.3) × The average reduced neutron width 〈〉 was 0.31 ± 0.08 meV. For 35 well-defined resonances between 15 and 70 eV, the average fission width 〈Γƒ〉 was 180 meV.