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Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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!
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Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
Reed J. Jensen
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 11 | Number 3 | May 1987 | Pages 481-485
Overview | doi.org/10.13182/FST87-A25029
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An overview of KrF laser issues for fusion in the laboratory environment is presented. In this fusion method, lasers are used to compress the deuteriumtritium fuel in the pellet to several thousand times its initial density. Krypton-fluoride lasers offer favorable wavelength, bandwidth, pulse-shaping, efficiency, and high-repetition rate properties for achieving fusion. Large-scale demonstration plants for fusion, however, rely on the improvement or resolution of significant issues: front-end capabilities, amplifiers and amplifier scaling, optical engineering for the ultraviolet, alignment systems, kinetics, beam quality, target coupling, cost, and overall system factors. We feel that KrF lasers may be able to meet the required inertial confinement fusion driver characteristics, driver-target coupling particularities, and capsule physics issues necessary to achieve the final conditions in the implosion that will produce net energy release from the fusion reaction.