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Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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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Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
H. Omar Wooten, Donald J. Dudziak, Nolan E. Hertel, Drew E. Kornreich, Adam C. Davis
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 159 | Number 3 | July 2008 | Pages 296-310
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE06-42
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This study investigates purely angular effects on photon buildup factors for slabs with optical thickness up to 10 mean free paths. Photon buildup factors are determined for different slabs, upon which monoenergetic photons between 50 keV and 10 MeV are incident at angles between 0 and 1.48 radians. As the incident angle is increased, the physical slab thickness is reduced to maintain a constant slant-path optical thickness relative to incident photons. This method identifies previously unexplored angular relationships between slab thickness and incident angle. Coupled electron/photon cross sections are used to account for secondary photon effects of bremsstrahlung and electron binding energies. The discrete ordinates code PARTISN is used to determine angular photon buildup factors for ten incident energies and ten incident angles for lead, iron, aluminum, and water slabs. Portions of these results are applicable to other slab geometry buildup studies.
