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
Feb 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
January 2026
Latest News
Quality is key: Investing in advanced nuclear research for tomorrow’s grid
As the energy sector faces mounting pressure to grow at an unprecedented pace while maintaining reliability and affordability, nuclear technology remains an essential component of the long-term solution. Southern Company stands out among U.S. utilities for its proactive role in shaping these next-generation systems—not just as a future customer, but as a hands-on innovator.
DeeEarl Vaden, Tae-Sic Yoo
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 193 | Number 5 | May 2019 | Pages 549-553
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1542879
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This technical note discusses radioactive decay computation with multiple source terms with heterogeneous introduction dates to the system. Two methods are considered: (1) decaying in sequence from the oldest dated source, ad finitium, to the final decay date and (2) decaying each source term to the final decay date and summing the resulting nuclides. We prove that radioactive decay computation using the prescribed two methods produces the same result. The algorithmic advantage of the second method over the first one is formally argued. The radioactive decay of 90Sr with multiple initial decay dates is given as an illustrative example.