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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 8–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Latest News
Illinois legislature lifts ban on nuclear energy, funds clean energy
The Illinois General Assembly passed a clean energy bill on October 30 that would, in part, lift a 30-year moratorium on new nuclear energy in the state and create incentives for more energy storage.
Christopher E. Hamilton, Nickolaus A. Smith, Jon R. Schoonover, Kimberly A. Defriend Obrey, Nicholas Bazin, Tina Jewell
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 2 | March-April 2013 | Pages 301-304
Technical Paper | Selected papers from 20th Target Fabrication Meeting, May 20-24, 2012, Santa Fe, NM, Guest Editor: Robert C. Cook | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A16354
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Silica aerogel, an extremely low-density and high-surface-area material, is a vital component of many target designs for inertial confinement fusion and high-energy-density physics experiments. Silica aerogel utilized in targets is found in a variety of densities and configurations. Material properties must be well characterized to minimize uncertainties in experimental data. In particular, density must be accurately known to predict shock velocity and timing of diagnostics. One potentially problematic attribute of silica is its hygroscopic nature. Here we describe adsorption of ambient moisture by silica aerogel, based on its density and processing parameters. Quick and simple methods of characterizing water uptake are needed to provide confidence in aerogel components. We find that aerogel manufactured using supercritical methanol is much more stable toward moisture (and therefore more suitable for use in targets) than that produced using supercritical carbon dioxide. Aerogel materials were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.