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Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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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College students help develop waste-measuring device at Hanford
A partnership between Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) and Washington State University has resulted in the development of a device to measure radioactive and chemical tank waste at the Hanford Site. WRPS is the contractor at Hanford for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.
Cihang Lu, Zeyun Wu
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 195 | Number 4 | April 2021 | Pages 437-452
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2020.1822661
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Computational modeling and simulations are widely used for evaluation of the performance and safety features of innovative nuclear reactor designs. Multigroup-based deterministic neutronics codes are often employed in these reactor design calculations because they can provide fast predictions of the neutron flux distribution and other neutronics characteristic parameters. Nevertheless, providing accurate multigroup cross sections for deterministic codes is an onerous job, which makes establishing an exhaustive cross-section library computationally prohibitive. Partly because of these reasons, multigroup neutron cross sections are normally stored only at certainty state points in the data library of these deterministic codes, and linear interpolation methodology is commonly utilized to estimate the cross sections at unknown states. However, the applicability of linear interpolation is limited, and the precision of its results is moderate.
In this paper, we discuss a preliminary feasibility study that we performed on providing more precise multigroup cross sections for deterministic neutronics codes by using the linear regression methodology. Compared to the traditional linear interpolation method, the linear regression approach principally showed improved computational efficiency considering the use of more data in the cross-section library, and constructed hypothesis functions for the responses of interest with a higher order of accuracy. In this study, a case study on Lightbridge Corporation’s metallic fuel element was carried out to demonstrate the feasibility and advantages of linear regression in multigroup cross-section interpretation. A reference cross-section library was established through calculations conducted with the Monte Carlo neutronic code Serpent. Because of the preliminary nature of this feasibility study, only the macroscopic total cross section is considered. Linear interpolation and linear regression were both used to estimate cross sections at unknown states based on the data available in the library. By comparing the performance of both methodologies, we demonstrated that the linear regression methodology achieved wider applicability and better precision in cross-section interpretation. Moreover, the linear regression process was finished within 15 s using a single processor core, which indicated that the additional computational burden brought by the implementation of linear regression methodology in the task was acceptable.