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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Feb 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
January 2026
Latest News
Mirion announces appointments
Mirion Technologies has announced three senior leadership appointments designed to support its global nuclear and medical businesses while advancing a company-wide digital and AI strategy. The leadership changes come as Mirion seeks to advance innovation and maintain strong performance in nuclear energy, radiation safety, and medical applications.
Robert E. Kurth, David C. Cox
Nuclear Technology | Volume 92 | Number 2 | November 1990 | Pages 186-193
Technical Paper | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34469
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Discrete probability methods have several advantages that should be retained in constructing a probabilistic model. First, most engineering data are in a discrete form, and thus a discrete probability method is a natural choice for incorporating such data in an analysis. Second, the discrete probability methods are invariant; i.e., regardless of the weighting scheme used for the input variable distributions, no new coding is required to implement these schemes. Other weighting methods, for example, Monte Carlo importance sampling, can require significant re-coding before lowprobability results can be estimated. The most significant drawback to discrete probability methods is that their application is limited. These discrete methods require many calculations and a large amount of computer storage space. The number of storage spaces equals the number of discrete points ND raised to the power of the number of variables Nv. Thus, for ten discrete and nine input variables, the response variable is characterized by 1 billion data points! While some computers may have sufficient storage space to handle this number of data points, statistically these data points are not all significant. A new method for random sampling from the discrete probability space and condensing after performing a statistically significant number of calculations is described. The accuracy of a Monte Carlo calculation can be approximated, while importance sampling can be directed without any recoding of the computer algorithm.