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.
Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Zap Energy hits 37-million-degree electron temperatures in compact fusion device
Zap Energy announced April 23 that it has reached 1-3 keV plasma electron temperatures—roughly the equivalent of 11 to 37 million degrees Celsius—using its sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch approach to fusion. Reaching temperatures above that of the sun’s core (which is 10 million degrees Celsius temperature) is just one hurdle required before any fusion confinement concept can realistically pursue net gain and fusion energy.
Argala Srivastava, S. B. Degweker
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 179 | Number 4 | April 2015 | Pages 460-476
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-42
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Analytical Green’s function–based diffusion Monte Carlo (MC) methods have been applied earlier for simulation of reactor noise experiments for measuring the degree of subcriticality in accelerator-driven systems. In this method analytical solution of the diffusion equation is used to construct the probability distribution function for neutron absorption in a medium. This method has several advantages such as speed, elegance, and exactitude but was applicable to a rather restricted class of problems, such as an infinite or bare homogeneous medium.
In the present paper, we further develop the analytical Green’s function (analytical diffusion kernel) approach to demonstrate its utility in a wider class of problems like a heterogeneous medium with the same or different diffusion coefficients. We provide mathematical and numerical proofs of the validity of certain recipes that were proposed for heterogeneous systems. We also investigate whether and to what extent the diffusion theory–based MC can be improved to give results closer to transport theory, particularly in situations wherein diffusion theory methods are otherwise inapplicable.