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Isotopes & Radiation
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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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
S. Welte, M. Sturm, D. Hillesheimer, L. T. Le, S. Schäfer, E. Fanghänel, F. Priester, A. Marsteller
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 76 | Number 3 | April 2020 | Pages 227-231
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1705681
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The main task of the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK) in 2018 was the commissioning and First Tritium (FT) operation of the windowless gaseous tritium source (WGTS) of the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment. It was paramount to enable the FT measurement run of the KATRIN experiment, to yield first scientific results with the complete KATRIN beamline.
The aim of KATRIN is to determine the mass of the electron-antineutrino by precise spectroscopy of the tritium β-spectrum close to its maximum energy of 18.6 keV. KATRIN uses an ultraluminous source (WGTS) and a high-resolution electrostatic spectrometer. While the inner loop system of KATRIN has the task of providing stabilized tritium circulation with a throughput of 40 g·day−1 for the WGTS, the outer loop incorporates the entire TLK infrastructure for tritium cleanup, purification, and accountancy prior to reinjection of tritium into the inner loop.
For KATRIN’s FT run, ≈5 × 1013 Bq (2.3 × 10−2 mol) of tritium was provided in 3.2 mol of deuterium. In contrast to the high isotopic purity of >95% tritium necessary for future KATRIN operation, a concentration of 7 × 108 Bq·m−3 (resulting in 0.5% nominal source luminosity) had to be kept constant during the entire FT campaign. This required a processing scheme deviating from the later KATRIN outer loop processing procedure.
This paper describes the procedures used to supply the KATRIN inner loop with its FT gas. Furthermore, experience gained during operation of the different gas processing steps and tritium accountancy is presented.