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
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
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.