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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.
M. H. Kalos
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 16 | Number 1 | May 1963 | Pages 111-117
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE63-A26481
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In estimating flux at a point in a Monte Carlo calculation one estimator uses the uncollided flux at a detector from each sampled collision point. This method is shown to have infinite variance. The average value converges to the expected value but the error decreases asymptotically as the inverse cube root of the number of histories. By using the once collided flux and by proper choice of the intermediate collision point the variance may be made finite. Results of numerical experiments show the finite variance methods to be preferable.