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
Feb 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2026
Nuclear Technology
January 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Godzilla is helping ITER prepare for tokamak assembly
ITER employees stand by Godzilla, the most powerful commercially available industrial robot available. (Photo: ITER)
Many people are familiar with Godzilla as a giant reptilian monster that emerged from the sea off the coast of Japan, the product of radioactive contamination. These days, there is a new Godzilla, but it has a positive—and entirely fact-based—association with nuclear energy. This one has emerged inside the Tokamak Assembly Preparation Building of ITER in southern France.
H. B. Choi, T. J. Downar
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 111 | Number 2 | June 1992 | Pages 205-213
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE92-A23934
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Depletion perturbation theory has been extended to the closed nuclear fuel cycle, and methods have been developed for computing the constrained sensitivities that account for fuel reprocessing and fabrication. An iterative method was developed to solve the sensitivity equations and applied to the closed fuel cycle of the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR). The sensitivities computed using the method were in good agreement with sensitivities from direct subtraction of perturbed and unperturbed depletion calculations. The closed fuel cycle sensitivities were also compared with the sensitivities for the open fuel cycle without reprocessing. The closed fuel cycle sensitivities were found to be larger, particularly for isotopes higher up the burnup chain. These results indicate this work would have particular importance for the analysis of advanced reactor designs with closed fuel cycles, such as the IFR. The methods developed here will facilitate accurate and efficient sensitivity studies of such reactors.