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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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What’s in your Dubai chocolate? Nuclear scientists test pistachios for toxins
For the uninitiated, Dubai chocolate is a candy bar filled with pistachio and tahini cream and crispy pastry recently popularized by social media influencers. While it’s easy to dismiss as a viral craze now past its peak, the nutty green confection has spiked global pistachio demand, and growers and processors are ramping up production. That means more pistachios need to be tested for aflatoxins—a byproduct of a common crop mold.
F. T. Gould, T. I. Taylor, W. W. Havens, Jr., B. M. Rustad, E. Melkonian
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 8 | Number 6 | December 1960 | Pages 453-466
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE60-A25832
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The absorption cross sections of gold and boron have been measured at long neutron wavelengths with a single crystal spectrometer. Mica along with microcrystalline filters of Be and BeO was used as a monochromator for the wavelength range from 4 to 8.75 Å, and for longer wavelengths a mechanical monochromator was used to remove second and higher order neutrons. Neutron beams with negligible higher order contamination were obtained with a wavelength resolution Δλ/λ of 0.018. The total cross section of gold for wavelengths from 5 to 11.5 Å is σt = (54.56 ± 0.09) λ (0.46 ± 0.67) barns. Evaluation of the thermal neutron (2200 m/sec) absorption cross sections gave (98.8 ± 0.3) barns for gold and (7.56 ± 6) barns for boron in glass plates for use as secondary standards.
