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
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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
Apr 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
May 2024
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Fawaz Ali, Ghaouti Bentoumi, Liqian Li, Ronald B. Rogge
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 9 | September 2023 | Pages 1252-1267
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2202793
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The low rate at which some fissile isotopes, such as 235U, 233U, and 239Pu, undergo spontaneous fission leads to a weak signal, resulting in a high-uncertainty in applying passive neutron counting techniques. Stimulating fission through active neutron interrogation can overcome this issue. At Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, a 252Cf and a deuterium-deuterium neutron source are available. In this study, a neutron counting system was designed to perform passive measurements and active neutron interrogation for a search of special nuclear material. The detection system consists of a cylindrical cavity surrounded by a polyethylene moderator with 3He detectors interspersed throughout. When used for passive measurements, the sample is placed in the cylindrical cavity, whereas in active interrogation mode, the 252Cf neutron source and the sample are placed in close proximity to each other in the cylindrical cavity. Measurements that actively interrogated samples, notably containing (among other isotopes) either 235U or 239Pu whose mass was on the order of fractions of a gram, carried out using the 252Cf neutron source found that the average delayed neutron count rate was on the same order of magnitude as those obtained from passive measurements using several kilograms of natural uranium. The Monte Carlo N-Particle 6 version 2.0 radiation transport code was used to simulate the aforementioned active interrogations and to inform the experimental results. Results showed that, due to the close proximity of the polyethylene moderator to the 252Cf source, the neutron energy spectrum traversing the fissile sample has a significant thermal component that maximizes the fission reaction rate in the interrogated fissile samples, thereby allowing for successful measurements.