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
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting 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
Jun 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2025
Nuclear Technology
July 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
NRC cuts fees by 50 percent for advanced reactor applicants
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced it has amended regulations for the licensing, inspection, special projects, and annual fees it will charge applicants and licensees for fiscal year 2025.
B. R. Wienke, R. E. Seamon, D. G. Madland
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 113 | Number 1 | January 1993 | Pages 86-92
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE93-A23996
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Antiprotons are negatively charged protons that continuously slow down in matter until they are stopped and captured on the surface of a nucleus by a proton; in which case, both proton and antiproton annihilate into gammas, pions, and other short-lived particles. When an antiproton annihilates at rest on the surface of an actinide nucleus, such as uranium, many fragments and neutrons are also produced, following direct reaction, nuclear evaporation, and fission processes, along with production of high-energy gammas and pions. Collectively, these processes have been termed antiproton fission, for simplicity, because many neutrons are produced as the end result of all reactions. Recent experiments at CERN suggest that as many as 15 to 20 neutrons are emitted following antiproton annihilation on 238U, that their distribution is peaked near 5 MeV in energy, and that a sizeable fraction (45 to 75%) of the annihilation energy (1.88 GeV per annihilation) is deposited locally in the 23SU. A fit to the experimental neutron spectrum of Angelopoulos et al. is presented, and the systematics of transporting and annihilating antiprotons in a multigroup representation are investigated for the first time. Applications of antiproton transport and fission in small spherical assemblies are discussed and contrasted, mainly systematics of local and nonlocal antiproton annihilation, criticality, and disassembly.