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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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.
G. D. Hickman, W. B. Leng
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 12 | Number 4 | April 1962 | Pages 523-531
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE62-A26101
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A set of effective cutoff energies for 1/v detectors covered by cadmium, samarium, and gadolinium filters is presented. These cutoff energies have been calculated for both isotropic and beam fluxes which were made up of a Maxwellian thermal plus a 1/E tail. Calculations were performed as a function of r (the ratio of thermal flux to the resonance flux per unit lethargy), EM (the Maxwellian neutron energy), and the absorption coefficients of the 1/v foil and the resonance filter. The cutoff energies for samarium were found to be appreciably lower than those for cadmium, while those for gadolinium, especially for thicknesses of 30 to 40 mils, are similar to those of cadmium. It is felt that these rare earth filters might be able to supply valuable information in the region of low cutoff energies, especially in high temperature facilities where cadmium with its low melting point is difficult to use.