ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Excelsior University student section awarded community education grant
The American Nuclear Society Student Section at Excelsior University in Albany, N.Y., was awarded a $5,000 grant from the ANS Student Section Strategic Fund initiative for its program, Empowering Tomorrow’s Nuclear Innovators: A Collaborative Approach to Nuclear Technology Education and Awareness.
Chris Kennedy, Cristian Rabiti, Hany Abdel-Khalik
Nuclear Technology | Volume 179 | Number 2 | August 2012 | Pages 169-179
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT179-169
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Generalized perturbation theory (GPT) has been recognized as the most computationally efficient approach for performing sensitivity analysis for models with many input parameters, which renders forward sensitivity analysis computationally overwhelming. In critical systems, GPT involves the solution of the adjoint form of the eigenvalue problem with a response-dependent fixed source. Although conceptually simple to implement, most neutronics codes that can solve the adjoint eigenvalue problem do not have a GPT capability unless envisioned during code development. We introduce in this manuscript a reduced-order modeling approach based on subspace methods that requires the solution of the fundamental adjoint equations but allows the generation of response sensitivities without the need to set up GPT equations, and that provides an estimate of the error resulting from the reduction. Moreover, the new approach solves the eigenvalue problem independently of the number or type of responses. This allows for an efficient computation of sensitivities when many responses are required. This paper introduces the theory and implementation details of the GPT-free approach and describes how the errors could be estimated as part of the analysis. The applicability is demonstrated by estimating the variations in the flux distribution everywhere in the phase space of a fast critical sphere and a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor prismatic lattice. The variations generated by the GPT-free approach are benchmarked to the exact variations generated by direct forward perturbations.