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Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
D. Antonini, E. Omicini, F. Pistella
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 48 | Number 3 | July 1972 | Pages 281-299
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE72-A22486
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A technique is presented for the evaluation by activation methods of the thermal resonance reactions in a system with thermal resonance absorbers; the method consists of measuring twice the ratios between the activity of a detector irradiated bare and that of a detector covered by a proper filter. These measurements can be useful in the analysis of spectral effects in plutonium fueled lattices. For instance, using a gadolinium filter and a cadmium filter the two resulting cutoff energies (0.2 and 0.6 eV, respectively) can be obtained such as to enclose the resonance of 239Pu at 0.3 eV. A calculational model to be used in connection with available cross section libraries is described, and a detailed investigation is presented of the behavior of gadolinium filters for detectors having resonances in the thermal energy range. Preliminary applications of the calculational model are presented whence indications are obtained concerning the choices of the detectors and of the filter thicknesses. The feasibility of the technique is shown from the experimental standpoint and the technique is applied by measurements in a neutron system where the spectrum is well known. The reliability of the calculational model adopted is also shown, since for different detectors and for different filter thicknesses the experimental values agree well with the corresponding calculated results.