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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
Standards Program
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.
Brian C. Kiedrowski, Forrest B. Brown, Jeremy L. Conlin, Jeffrey A. Favorite, Albert C. Kahler, Alyssa R. Kersting, D. Kent Parsons, Jessie L. Walker
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 181 | Number 1 | September 2015 | Pages 17-47
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-99
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Nuclear criticality safety analysis using computational methods such as a Monte Carlo method must establish, for a defined area of applicability, an upper subcritical limit (USL), which is a calculated multiplication factor k that can be treated as actually subcritical and is derived from a calculational margin (combination of bias and bias uncertainty) and a margin of subcriticality. Whisper, a nonparametric, extreme-value method based on sensitivity/uncertainty techniques and the associated software are presented. Whisper uses benchmark critical experiments, nuclear data sensitivities from the continuous-energy Monte Carlo transport software MCNP, and nuclear covariance data to set a baseline USL. Comparisons with a traditional parametric approach for validation, which requires benchmark data to be normally distributed, show that Whisper typically obtains similar or more conservative calculational margins; comparisons with a rank-order nonparametric approach show that Whisper obtains less stringent calculational margins.