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
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott 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!
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
NRC v. Texas: Supreme Court weighs challenge to NRC authority in spent fuel storage case
The State of Texas has not one but two ongoing federal court challenges to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that could, if successful, turn decades of NRC regulations, precedent, and case law on its head.
R. E. Simpson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 3 | Number 8 | August 1967 | Pages 500-506
Technical Paper and Note | doi.org/10.13182/NT67-A27782
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A study has been made of the response of normal lithium fluoride and that depleted of 6Li when exposed to pure gamma rays and to the mixed neutron-plus-gamma fields of reactors. Results from a study of the glow curves of the two materials after gamma-ray exposure are similar. However, after reactor exposures in a known field of thermal neutrons and gamma rays, significant differences were found in the 200 and 275°C glow peaks for approximately the same integrated area under the curves. Presumably these are principally due to differences in the specific ionization of recoil electrons from gamma rays relative to that of the alpha particles and 3H recoils from the 6Li(n,α)3H reaction. By using thermal-neutron shields of 6Li or cadmium, the pure gamma dose can be obtained from the usual gamma-ray glow curves from either material. The response (integrated light output) of the depleted LiF per 1010 n/cm2(th) equals that caused by 0.7 rad of 60Co gamma rays, while the corresponding response of the normal phosphor exceeds that from 200 rad of gamma rays. Having determined the response of these materials to thermal neutrons, and considering the relative independence of the response (per rad) upon gamma-ray energy, one may use the depleted phosphor to determine gamma-ray dose within a reactor environment and the normal material as an auxiliary thermal-neutron-plus-gamma-ray detector.