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Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
Meeting Spotlight
Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space (NETS 2023)
May 7–11, 2023
Idaho Falls, ID|Snake River Event Center
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
The blossoming of cooperation between the U.S. and Canada
The United States and Canadian nuclear industries used to be an example of how two independent teams of engineers facing an identical problem—making electricity from uranium—could come up with completely different answers. In the 1950s, Canada began designing a reactor with tubes, heavy water, and natural uranium, while in the U.S. it was big pots of light water and enriched uranium.
But 80 years later, there is a remarkable convergence. The North American push for a new generation of nuclear reactors, mostly small modular reactors (SMRs), is becoming binational, with U.S. and Canadian companies seeking markets and regulatory certification on both sides of the border and in many cases sourcing key components in the other country.
Cheol Ho Pyeon, Takahiro Yagi, Kiichi Sukawa, Yoshimasa Yamaguchi, Tsuyoshi Misawa
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 177 | Number 2 | June 2014 | Pages 156-168
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE13-21
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experimental studies on the thorium-loaded accelerator-driven system (ADS) were conducted at the Kyoto University Critical Assembly. Mockup experiments were carried out in both the critical and subcritical states to investigate the influence of different thermal neutron profiles on the thorium capture and fission reactions. Thorium plate irradiation experiments for the thorium capture and fission reactions demonstrate fission reactions in the critical state, and the calculated-to-experiment values of reaction rates show accuracy within a relative difference of ∼30%. In the ADS experiments with an external neutron source (14-MeV neutrons and 100-MeV protons), subcritical experiments were carried out in the thorium-loaded cores to investigate the influence of different thermal neutron profiles on thorium capture reaction rates by the measurement of 115In(n,γ)116mIn reactions. The results reveal the difference between reaction rate distributions attributed to varying not only the neutron spectrum of the core but also the external neutron source. A comparison between the measured and calculated reaction rate distributions reflects the accuracy of reaction-rate analyses for the thorium-loaded ADS experiments with an external neutron source. Additionally, kinetic experiments were carried out to deduce the prompt neutron decay constants and subcriticality by the pulsed neutron method.
