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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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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Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Thomas M. Sutton
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 2 | February 2023 | Pages 164-175
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2065872
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The results of neutron Monte Carlo (MC) transport calculations are subject to random fluctuations about their expected values. The term “neutron clustering” refers to situations in which these fluctuations exhibit particularly strong spatial correlations in iterated-fission-source calculations. Various idealized models of the MC process have been developed to study this phenomenon. Over time, these models have evolved to more realistically reflect the algorithms used in MC codes. This paper continues along this path by including the possibility that some neutrons will not terminate in an event that can potentially produce new neutrons and by considering an algorithm without replacement (WOR) for selecting the neutron source sites. It is shown that sampling source sites WOR versus with replacement can greatly reduce the degree of clustering.