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Maine Maritime Academy to offer nuclear engineering technology major
The Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) is set to become the first maritime academy in the United States to offer a major in nuclear engineering technology. The college characterized it as “an important step in addressing workforce needs and advancing clean energy solutions” in a LinkedIn post announcing the major.
J. A. Grzesik
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 6 | June 2023 | Pages 1255-1263
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2138064
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We undertake to derive herein the Wigner-Wilkins (W-W) neutron/nucleus scattering kernel, a foundation stone in neutron thermalization theory, on the basis of a self-contained calculation in quantum mechanics. Indeed, a quantum-mechanical derivation of the W-W kernel is available in the literature, but it is, in our opinion, robbed of conviction by being couched in terms of an excessive generality. Here, by contrast, we proceed along a self-contained route relying on the Fermi pseudopotential and a first-order term in a time-dependent Born approximation series. Our calculations are fully explicit at every step, and, in particular, we tackle in its every detail a final integration whose result is merely stated in the available literature. Furthermore, and perhaps the most important point of all, we demonstrate that the quantum-mechanical W-W kernel outcome is identical down to the last iota with its classical antecedent, classical not only by virtue of historical precedence but also by being based on classical Newtonian mechanics.