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
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 8–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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
Oct 2025
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
November 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
NextEra and Google ink a deal to restart Duane Arnold
A day anticipated by many across the nuclear community has finally arrived: NextEra Energy has officially announced its plans to restart Iowa’s only nuclear power plant, the Duane Arnold Energy Center.
B. E. Simmons, J. S. King
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 3 | Number 5 | May 1958 | Pages 595-608
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE3-595-608
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
If a burst of neutrons is injected into a reactor, the rate of prompt decay of the resultant flux should be proportional to the reactivity in dollars as measured from prompt critical. The proportionality constant is the ratio of the effective delayed neutron fraction to the prompt neutron generation time and can be determined by pulsing the reactor at (delayed) critical. Experiments with distributed poison in several highly enriched, hydrogen-moderated critical assemblies indicate that such pulsed reactivity measurements are reliable at least as far as