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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
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Latest News
U.S. nuclear capacity factors: Ideal for data centers?
Baseload nuclear generation doesn’t get the respect it deserves, if you ask nuclear operators. But the hyperscale data centers that process our digital lives—like the one right next to the Susquehanna plant in northeastern Pennsylvania—are pushing electricity demand up. Clean, reliable capacity now looks a lot more valuable.
Patrick Achenbach, Mirco Christmann
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 198 | Number 1 | January 2024 | Pages 1-6
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2151301
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Light dark matter (LDM) in the mega-electron-volt to giga-electron-volt mass region is an attractive candidate for the all-pervasive and encompassing matter making up the vast bulk of the mass of our universe. Beam dump experiments at high-intensity accelerators are a powerful tool to produce and detect LDM. They can probe an unexplored dark sector that is interacting with the standard model (SM) through one or more portals. At the lowest-beam-energy end, the DarkMESA experiment will run behind the dump of the 150-MeV electron beam of the MESA accelerator, currently under construction at the Institute for Nuclear Physics in Mainz. The concept for detecting direct scattering reactions of LDM comprises an electromagnetic calorimeter surrounded by an active veto system for rejecting backgrounds from SM particles. Suitable shielding will be located between the downstream detectors and the dump. A low-pressure, negative-ion, time-projection chamber could supplement these searches. At much higher beam energies, the Beam Dump eXperiment (BDX) is proposed to run parasitically behind the Jefferson Lab Hall-A beam dump making use of the up to 11-GeV electron beam. BDX employs the same detector concept. Direct LDM scattering reactions can be detected in an electromagnetic calorimeter operated inside hermetic layers of veto counters and a thick lead vault. Both experiments can explore uncovered regions of the parameter space of the LDM interaction strength versus mass, exceeding the discovery potential of existing experiments.