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Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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.
Louis A. Rosocha, John McLeod, John A. Hanlon
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 11 | Number 3 | May 1987 | Pages 624-633
Technical Paper | KrF Laser | doi.org/10.13182/FST87-A25039
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Aurora is a high-power KrF laser system now being constructed for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) studies at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. It will use optical angular multiplexing and serial amplification by electron-beam-driven KrF amplifiers to deliver a stacked, multikilojoule 5-ns-duration laser pulse to ICF targets. The requirements of angular multiplexing KrF lasers at the multikilojoule level dictate path lengths on the order of 1 km. The inherent complicated path crossings produced by angular multiplexing and pulse stacking do not allow isolation of individual beam lines either for evacuation or the control of air motion, so the optical quality of the long beam paths must be controlled. Propagation of the 248-nm light beams over long paths in air is affected by scattering (Rayleigh, aerosol, Raman), absorption by atmospheric gases, thermal gradients and turbulence, beam alignment, and control and optical component figure errors. Practical experience indicates that good beam quality cannot be obtained for modest path lengths (several tens of metres) unless an environmentally isolated beam tube is employed. We examine how these mechanisms affect beam propagation in the Aurora system and report on experiments performed to characterize air as a practical propagation medium.