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.
Hangbok Choi, Gyuhong Roh
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 146 | Number 2 | February 2004 | Pages 188-199
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE04-A2402
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Benchmark calculations have been performed for the conventional Canadian deuterium uranium (CANDU) core analysis code RFSP and the Monte Carlo code MCNP-4B using experimental data from the deuterium critical assembly. The benchmark calculation was carried out for the effective multiplication factor (keff), void reactivity, local power peaking factor (LPPF), and power distribution of a uniform core with 1.2 wt% UO2 and two-region cores with PuO2-UO2 fuels. The RFSP calculation was performed with two energy groups, using lattice parameters generated by WIMS-AECL with the ENDF/B-V cross-section library. The RFSP calculation has shown that the root-mean-square (rms) errors of the keff and the void reactivity are within 0.6% k and 0.3% (1/k), respectively. The MCNP simulation was performed using a fully heterogeneous core model that explicitly describes the individual fuel rod and channel. The simulation showed an excellent agreement for the keff against the measurement, while the rms error of the void reactivity was 0.4% (1/k). The LPPF and core power distribution estimated by both codes matched those of the measurements within 4 and 9%, respectively. Conclusively, the physics analysis by the RFSP code in conjunction with the WIMS-AECL produces credible results for the light water-cooled and heavy water-moderated system. In addition, the MCNP-4B code has proved its potential as a computational benchmarking tool for the heavy water-moderated system.
