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
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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.
Charles T. Rombough, Hans Toffer, Ralph D. Crowe, Todd J. Samuel
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 106 | Number 4 | December 1990 | Pages 489-493
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE90-A23773
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Measurements and analysis demonstrate that self-powered fixed in-core detectors can be used to reliably measure the spatial distribution of the gamma flux in a large nuclear reactor in the shutdown state. Measurements were made at the Hanford N Reactor, a large graphite-moderated dual-purpose nuclear reactor that has been equipped with a state-of-the-art fixed in-core detector system consisting of rhodium and hafnium self-powered detectors. Although the system was designed for neutron flux measurements at power, the detectors can be used to measure the gamma flux distribution in the reactor while the reactor is shut down. Except for some flux peaks caused by known radiation sources, the spatial distribution can be related to the fuel burnup surrounding each detector. Subsequent measurements were made after the fuel was removed and it was found that the gamma flux decreased by an amount that was predicted from the first measurement. These measurements demonstrate that well-designed self-powered fixed in-core detectors can be used to extract meaningful information at power levels much smaller than previously thought. A fixed in-core detector system, in conjunction with commercially available signal collection equipment, can be used to accurately and reliably measure neutron and gamma flux distributions in nuclear reactors at power levels on the order of 0.1%.