Uranium-238 is used extensively in nuclear reactor cores. Its nuclear properties have a significant effect on many aspects of the entire fuel cycle process from enrichment facilities and power production to nuclear waste storage facilities. In order to safely design such systems, an accurate evaluation of neutron interactions with U is required. This paper describes a process of quantifying dif...

The CYCLUS project, based at the University of Wisconsin Madison, is an open source platform for exploring the longterm impact of alternative nuclear fuel cycles. The CYCLUS core provides the infrastructure for an agent-based approach, allowing user-provided modules to define the behavior of fuel cycle facilities as they interact to exchange materials. An important consequence of this approach ...

Ethics requires good science. Many scientists, government leaders, and industry representatives support tripling of global-nuclear-energy capacity on the grounds that nuclear fission is "carbon free" and "releases no greenhouse gases." However, such claims are scientifically questionable (and thus likely to lead to ethically questionable energy choices) for at least 3 reasons. (i) They rely on ...

The Great Lakes basin is of radiologic interest due to the large population within its boundaries that may be exposed to various sources of ionizing radiation. Specific radionuclides of interest in the basin arising from natural and artificial sources include 3H, 14C, 90Sr, 129I, 131I, 137Cs, 222Rn, 226Ra, 235U, 238U, 239Pu, and 241Am. The greatest contribution to total radiation exposure is th...