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DTRA’s advancements in nuclear and radiological detection
A new, more complex nuclear age has begun. Echoing the tensions of the Cold War amid rapidly evolving nuclear and radiological threats, preparedness in the modern age is a contest of scientific innovation. The Research and Development Directorate (RD) at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is charged with winning this contest.
Matteo Stanzani, Donato M. Castelluccio, Francesco Lodi, Vincenzo G. Peluso, Giacomo Grasso, Marco Sumini
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 200 | Number 1 | March 2026 | Pages S342-S365
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2025.2455341
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Depletion calculations and related sensitivity analyses are fundamental in designing nuclear reactors. Looking at the core design of liquid metal–cooled fast reactors, a novel procedure based on the Generalized Perturbation Theory was developed and implemented in the deterministic ERANOS suite to extend its current capabilities related to depletion-related sensitivity analysis. Specifically, a partial perturbative coupling of the burnup equations was introduced to estimate the sensitivities of final isotopic concentrations to microscopic cross sections. First, the procedure was successfully verified through a simple test case by comparing its results with an analytical solution obtained via MATLAB©. Then, a more complex case was studied to highlight the differences between the new perturbatively coupled configuration and the default decoupled one. Overall, the coupling proved to have a nonnegligible impact on the sensitivity coefficients, opening the path for further extending the procedure and applying it to more realistic problems.