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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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!
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General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
Ilham Variansyah, Ryan G. McClarren
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 196 | Number 11 | November 2022 | Pages 1280-1305
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2091906
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An extensive study of population control techniques (PCTs) for time-dependent and eigenvalue Monte Carlo (MC) neutron transport calculations is presented. We define PCT as a technique that takes a censused population and returns a controlled, unbiased population. A new perspective based on an abstraction of particle census and population control is explored, paving the way to improved understanding and application of the concepts. Five distinct PCTs identified from the literature are reviewed: simple sampling, splitting-roulette (SR), combing (CO), modified combing, and duplicate-discard (DD). A theoretical analysis of how much uncertainty is introduced to a population by each PCT is presented. Parallel algorithms for the PCTs, applicable for both time-dependent and eigenvalue MC simulations, are proposed. The relative performance of the PCTs based on run time and tally mean error or standard deviation is assessed by solving time-dependent and eigenvalue test problems. It is found that SR and CO are equally the most performing techniques, closely followed by DD.
