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 Winter Conference & Expo
November 15–18, 2026
Phoenix, AZ|Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
Latest Magazine Issues
Sep 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Westinghouse, Nordion, and PSEG team up to produce Co‑60 in the United States
This past January, Westinghouse Electric Company, Nordion, and PSEG Nuclear formalized agreements to implement newly developed cobalt-60 production technology at Units 1 and 2 of PSEG’s Salem nuclear power plant in New Jersey, with the Co-60 to be supplied to Nordion. Through an ongoing joint initiative, the companies aim to harness U.S. pressurized water reactors to produce a key medical isotope and build the first commercial-scale Co-60 production platform in the United States.
Robert E. Miles
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 79 | Number 2 | October 1981 | Pages 239-245
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE81-A27414
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new approach is presented for handling problems involving radioactive decay, buildup, and mass transfer. This method uses recursion relations for computing the exponential terms that makes the computation fast and efficient. The concepts of a path specific probability function and a cumulative transfer probability function are introduced and used in developing a general equation. This general equation permits branching from a parent to any daughter nuclide further down the decay chain and also mass transfer to other compartments linked by first-order transfer rate constants. Backward branching or feedback mechanisms, however, are not permitted. Treatment for problems involving singularities is also presented. The method has been found to be useful for many practical applications such as fission product buildup in nuclear reactor cores and releases from reactor plants.