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Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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Take steps on SNF and HLW disposal
Matt Bowen
With a new administration and Congress, it is time once again to ponder what will happen—if anything—on U.S. spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste management policy over the next few years. One element of the forthcoming discussion seems clear: The executive and legislative branches are eager to talk about recycling commercial SNF. Whatever the merits of doing so, it does not obviate the need for one or more facilities for disposal of remaining long-lived radionuclides. For that reason, making progress on U.S. disposal capabilities remains urgent, lest the associated radionuclide inventories simply be left for future generations to deal with.
In March, Rick Perry, who was secretary of energy during President Trump’s first administration, observed that during his tenure at the Department of Energy it became clear to him that any plan to move SNF “required some practical consent of the receiving state and local community.”1
Yukio Sakamoto, Shun-ichi Tanaka, Yoshiko Harima
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 100 | Number 1 | September 1988 | Pages 33-42
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE88-A29012
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The values of buildup factors for a specific energy above K edges and penetration distance vary smoothly with respect to atomic number. An interpolation of buildup factors for an arbitrary elemental material is examined using geometric-progression (G-P) parameters for an equivalent atomic number. The G-P parameters are data fitted to the proposed American National Standard buildup factor data compilation of 17 elements from beryllium to molybdenum and are calculated by the moments method. The data for iron, molybdenum, tin, lanthanum, gadolinium, tungsten, lead, and uranium, including bremsstrahlung and fluorescence, are calculated by the PALLAS code. Various tests over a wide range of atomic numbers confirm that values of the buildup factors generated by interpolated G-P parameters can reproduce the basic data calculated directly over the full range of energy with an accuracy within a few percent. The values of equivalent atomic number for mixture materials, such as water, air, concrete, and lead glass of 4.36 density, are determined from a ratio of scattering cross section to the total attenuation coefficient. The buildup factors for these materials calculated using the G-P parameters, interpolated by the equivalent atomic number, are in good agreement with the basic data, although a deviation is observed above 3 MeV for the buildup factors for lead glass.