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
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Aug 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
August 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
No impact from Savannah River radioactive wasps
The news is abuzz with recent news stories about four radioactive wasp nests found at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The site has been undergoing cleanup operations since the 1990s related to the production of plutonium and tritium for defense purposes during the Cold War. Cleanup activities are expected to continue into the 2060s.
M. S. Raykin, A. I. Shlyakhter
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 102 | Number 1 | May 1989 | Pages 54-63
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE89-A23631
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new approach to the solution of burnup equations is developed that takes into account the dependence of the reaction constants on time as well as nonlinear and feedback effects. With the help of the transition probabilities for the simplified problem, the burnup differential equation is reduced to the equivalent integral equation, which is solved by iterations. The solution is made easy to understand with the help of diagrams constructed following the suggested rules. It is strictly proved that any nuclide transmutation network can be broken into independent depletion chains if the burnup equations are linear in concentrations. The theory is illustrated by examples of the time dependence of reaction constants.