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
May 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2026
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Reimagining nuclear materials for the future of medicine
Nuclear medicine has come a long way since Henri Becquerel first observed the penetrating energy of radioactive materials in 1896. Today, technetium-99m alone is used in more than 40 million diagnostic procedures every year—from cardiovascular imaging and bone scans to cancer detection—making it the undisputed workhorse of nuclear medicine. That single statistic tells you something important: An enormous portion of modern diagnostic medicine rests on a surprisingly narrow foundation, one built around a small number of aging research reactors that were never originally designed for continuous isotope production.
Yasunori Kitamura, Yuta Eguchi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 178 | Number 3 | November 2014 | Pages 401-413
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-21
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A series of integral reactor physics experiments conducted at the Very High Temperature Reactor Critical Assembly was analyzed to assemble it into a benchmark through an extensive peer-review process under the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project. This benchmark provides the experimental data with respect to the criticalities of seven core configurations and the temperature effect on reactivity up to 200°C with explicit experimental uncertainties newly evaluated. It further presents the benchmark models and corresponding values with some simplifications so that it can be used by reactor designers for validating the analytical tools employed to design next-generation reactors and for establishing the safety basis for operation of these reactors.