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.
E. Gelbard, J. Davis, J. Pearson
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 5 | Number 1 | January 1959 | Pages 36-44
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE59-A27327
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The spherical harmonics approximation of Ith order, applied to the transport equation in slab geometry, leads to 2l + 1 coupled first order differential equations. These may be transformed into (2l + 1)/2 second order differential equations similar, in form, to the few-group diffusion equations, and amenable to solution by well-known iterative techniques. The double-Pl equations of Yvon may be manipulated and solved in the same manner. This article describes an IBM 704 code which makes use of such a method. Some of the results obtained with the code are discussed, and machine times for typical problems are compared with times required to solve the same problem by the discrete ordinate methods.