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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.
W. M. Lopez, J. R. Beyster
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 12 | Number 2 | February 1962 | Pages 190-202
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE62-A26058
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Neutron diffusion parameters in water have been measured at 26.7°C with the pulsed neutron technique. The results are 210 ± 1 µsec for the neutron mean lifetime, 37,503 ± 366 cm2 sec−1 for the average diffusion coefficient, and 5116 ± 776 cm4 sec−1 for the diffusion cooling constant. From these values the thermal absorption cross section of hydrogen and the thermal diffusion length in water can be inferred to be 325 ± 2 mb and 2.83 ± 0.02 cm, respectively. With a pulsed high-intensity neutron source provided by an electron linear accelerator, neutron lifetime measurements were performed on small and large water samples with values of the geometrical buckling from 0.014 cm−2 to 0.59 cm−2. Effects of harmonic modes in the large water geometries, which were determined by measurements of the time-dependent spatial flux distributions resulting from an external pulsed source of fast neutrons, were found to be adequately predictable with simple diffusion theory.