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 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
Front-end nuclear fuel supply cooperation: Turning allied interdependence into strategic advantage
The global nuclear revival, which is fueled by unprecedented demand for firm, affordable, dispatchable power for artificial intelligence and data center build-out, energy security imperatives, and climate commitments, has exposed a structural reality of the Western fuel cycle: No single allied nation currently possesses the full suite of front-end capabilities. From mining through conversion, enrichment, fabrication, and the emerging deconversion and metallization steps required for reactor fuels, capability is distributed across Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States (collectively, the “Sapporo Five”), as well as a small group of close partners.
Christopher M. Perfetti, Bradley T. Rearden, William R. Martin
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 182 | Number 3 | March 2016 | Pages 332-353
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE15-12
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The need to model geometrically complex systems with improved ease of use and fidelity and the desire to extend the Tools for Sensitivity and UNcertainty Analysis Methodology Implementation (TSUNAMI) analysis to advanced applications have motivated the development of a methodology for calculating sensitivity coefficients in continuous-energy (CE) Monte Carlo applications. The Contributon-Linked eigenvalue sensitivity/Uncertainty estimation via Track length importance CHaracterization (CLUTCH) and Iterated Fission Probability (IFP) eigenvalue sensitivity methods were recently implemented in the CE KENO framework of the SCALE code system to enable TSUNAMI-3D to perform eigenvalue sensitivity calculations using CE Monte Carlo methods. This paper provides a detailed description of the theory behind the CLUTCH method and describes in detail its implementation. This work also explores the improvements in eigenvalue sensitivity coefficient accuracy that can be gained through use of CE sensitivity methods and compares several sensitivity methods in terms of computational efficiency and memory requirements. The IFP and CLUTCH methods produced sensitivity coefficient estimates that matched, and in some cases exceeded, the accuracy of those produced using the multigroup TSUNAMI-3D approach. The CLUTCH method was found to calculate sensitivity coefficients with the highest degree of efficiency and the lowest computational memory footprint for the problems examined.