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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
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!
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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.
Y. Namito, S. Ban, H. Hirayama
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 120 | Number 3 | July 1995 | Pages 199-210
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE95-A24119
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effects of including linear polarization and Doppler broadening of the Compton-scattered photon energy, i.e., the Compton profile, in a calculation of the exposure buildup factors for plane normal gamma-ray sources are investigated by using an improved electron gamma shower Monte Carlo code, EGS4, for water, iron, and lead in the 40- to 250-keV range for penetration depths of up to 16 mean free paths (mfp). The effects of including the bound Compton total cross section (&sigmabC) and the bound Compton-scattered photon angular distribution by using the incoherent-scattering function [S(x, Z)] were also evaluated. The “pseudo” exposure buildup factors were calculated to determine these effects combined with the effects of Rayleigh and/or Compton scattering. The pseudo exposure buildup factor increases at points farther than a few mfp’s and decreases in the neighborhood of the source upon including linear polarization. It decreases upon including Doppler broadening. The degree of each effect varies with the atomic number of the material. The effect of linear polarization is large for materials of small atomic number; that of the Doppler broadening is large for materials of medium and large atomic number.