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Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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.
Z. W. Lin
Nuclear Technology | Volume 166 | Number 3 | June 2009 | Pages 273-282
Technical Paper | 2007 Space Nuclear Conference / Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A8841
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In space radiation calculations it is often useful to calculate the dose or dose equivalent in blood-forming organs (BFOs), the eye, or the skin. It has been customary to use a 5-cm equivalent sphere to approximate the BFO dose. However, previous studies have shown that a 5-cm sphere gives conservative dose values for BFOs. In this study we use a deterministic radiation transport with the Computerized Anatomical Man model to investigate whether the equivalent-sphere model (ESM) can approximate organ doses in space radiation environments. We have determined the organ-specific constant radius parameters and the corresponding average errors of using the ESM at those radius parameters. We find that for galactic cosmic ray (GCR) environments, the ESM with a constant radius parameter works well in estimating the dose and dose equivalent in BFOs, the eye, or the skin, and the average errors of using the ESM are all <2%. For solar particle event (SPE) environments, however, the radius parameters for organ dose or dose equivalent increase significantly with the shielding thickness, and the model works marginally for BFOs but is unacceptable for the eye or the skin. To estimate the dose equivalent in BFOs, for example, the constant radius parameter is determined to be ~10.5 cm for GCR environments and ~7.8 cm for SPE environments, and the corresponding average error of using these radius parameters in the ESM is 0.7% and 17%, respectively.