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Division Spotlight
Mathematics & Computation
Division members promote the advancement of mathematical and computational methods for solving problems arising in all disciplines encompassed by the Society. They place particular emphasis on numerical techniques for efficient computer applications to aid in the dissemination, integration, and proper use of computer codes, including preparation of computational benchmark and development of standards for computing practices, and to encourage the development on new computer codes and broaden their use.
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.
M. J. Rivard, B. L. Kirk, L. C. Leal
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 149 | Number 1 | January 2005 | Pages 101-106
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE05-A2480
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Radiation dose distributions of brachytherapy sources are generally characterized with the assumption that all internal components are equally radioactive. Autoradiographs and discussions with source manufacturers indicated this assumption of the radionuclide physical distribution may be invalid. Consequently, clinical dose distributions would be in error when not accounting for these internal variations. Many implants use brachytherapy sources with four 125I resin beads and two radiopaque markers used for imaging. Monte Carlo methods were used to determine dose contributions from each of the resin beads. These contributions were compared with those from an idealized source having a uniform physical distribution. Upon varying the 125I physical distribution while retaining the same overall radioactivity, the dose distribution along the transverse plane remained constant within 5% for r > 0.5 cm. For r 0.5 cm, relative positioning of the resin beads dominated the shielding effects, and dose distributions varied up to a factor of 3 at r = 0.05 cm. For points off the transverse plane, comparisons of the uniform and nonuniform dose distributions produced larger variations. Shielding effects within the capsule were virtually constant along the source long axis and demonstrated that anisotropy variations among the four resin beads were dependent on internal component positioning.
