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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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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.
Arthur H. Snell
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 90 | Number 4 | August 1985 | Pages 358-366
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE85-A18480
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An account is given of some nuclear measurements that apparently had some importance in the early days of the nuclear chain reaction. These include measurements of the decay periods and the intensity of the delayed neutrons (important for the control of the chain reaction), and the first measurements relative to a fast-neutron chain reaction in uranium metal. The latter showed that normal uranium would have to be enriched by a factor of more than 12 in order to sustain a fast-neutron chain reaction in a finite geometry, and that high enrichment would be needed for a nuclear weapon. They also suggested to reactor theorists that the interaction fast effect might make an important contribution to a controlled slow-neutron chain reaction using natural water as moderator/coolant. (In the capable hands of others, this perception of the theorists led eventually to most of the civilian and naval power reactors.) Items of personal research are briefly mentioned, viz., observation of the radioactive decay of the free neutron, of nuclear recoil due to neutrino emission, and of the atomic consequences of radioactive decay. The periods covered are 1940–1944 with the Cyclotron Group at the Metallurgical Laboratory, Chicago, and 1944–1968 at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.