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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
Meeting Spotlight
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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Latest News
Lightbridge announces first U-Zr fuel rod samples extruded at INL
Lightbridge Corporation announced today that it has reached “a critical milestone” in the development of its extruded solid fuel technology. Coupon samples using an alloy of zirconium and depleted uranium—not the high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) that Lightbridge plans to use to manufacture its fuel for the commercial market—were extruded at Idaho National Laboratory’s Materials and Fuels Complex.
George H. Miley, Hiromu Momota, Linchun Wu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 166 | Number 3 | June 2009 | Pages 295-300
Technical Note | 2007 Space Nuclear Conference / Miscellaneous | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A8843
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A radical new inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion concept, the magnetically channeled IEC trap array (MCTA), is studied as a candidate power unit for interplanetary space travel. IEC fusion concepts are widely recognized to be attractive for space power because they are simple and lightweight. However, existing experimental IEC concepts, while very successful for low-level power neutron sources, do not project to high-power space applications because of poor confinement-time scaling and grid heating/losses. The MCTA concept addresses both issues: eliminating the need for a central grid by injecting energetic ions into this unique hybrid configuration and providing improved confinement by connecting a number of traps. Because of the linearly connected geometry and compatibility with an efficient traveling wave direct-energy converter, aneutronic fuels, such as D-3He, can be implemented. Thus, the MCTA concept has the potential to accomplish the demanding requirements of future deep-space propulsion and power by providing a high power-density propulsion system. This promise was amply demonstrated in an earlier, reasonably detailed design study by University of Illinois researchers that used an MCTA to accomplish a fast manned mission to Jupiter.In the present paper, we discuss the basic MCTA concept and examine stability issues that must be resolved to access the feasibility of this concept. Some important supporting data carry over from prior IEC experiments, but a full MCTA configuration has yet to be studied experimentally. If proven feasible, the MCTA development path would involve experiments at progressively higher powers aimed at the ultimate demonstration of a full-scale, several-hundred-MW propulsion unit.