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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Remembering ANS member Gil Brown
Brown
The nuclear community is mourning the loss of Gilbert Brown, who passed away on July 11 at the age of 77 following a battle with cancer.
Brown, an American Nuclear Society Fellow and an ANS member for nearly 50 years, joined the faculty at Lowell Technological Institute—now the University of Massachusetts–Lowell—in 1973 and remained there for the rest of his career. He eventually became director of the UMass Lowell nuclear engineering program. After his retirement, he remained an emeritus professor at the university.
Sukesh Aghara, chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization, noted in an email to NEDHO members and others that “Gil was a relentless advocate for nuclear energy and a deeply respected member of our professional community. He was also a kind and generous friend—and one of the reasons I ended up at UMass Lowell. He served the university with great dedication. . . . Within NEDHO, Gil was a steady presence and served for many years as our treasurer. His contributions to nuclear engineering education and to this community will be dearly missed.”
Robert E. Rothe, C. L. Schuske, E. E. Hicks
Nuclear Technology | Volume 7 | Number 6 | December 1969 | Pages 505-512
Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT69-A28369
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experimental data are presented to show the conditions under which a complex fissile system may be conservatively approximated by a simpler system. The complex system consists of an unpoisoned uranium-solution slab in contact, on one face, with a thick region of heavily boronpoisoned uranium solution. The simpler system consists of an unpoisoned uranium-solution slab reflected, on one face, by Plexiglas. A calculated correction to yield a similar result for water is also presented. Use of this approximation will simplify a nuclear-safety engineer's evaluation of complex interacting fissile regions containing heavily poisoned and unpoisoned vessels. Measured critical thicknesses are reported for uranium-solution slabs unreflected, reflected on one face only, and reflected on both faces by Plexiglas. These data and calculations on infinitesolution slabs similarly reflected confirm that the critical height decreases linearly as the percent of the surface area reflected increases.