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June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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Latest News
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.
M. A. Root, H. O. Menlove, R. C. Lanza, C. D. Rael, K. A. Miller, J. B. Marlow
Nuclear Technology | Volume 197 | Number 2 | February 2017 | Pages 180-190
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-50
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Active neutron coincidence systems are commonly used by international inspectorates to verify a material balance across the various stages of the nuclear fuel cycle. The Uranium Neutron Coincidence Collar (UNCL) is one such instrument; it is used to measure the linear density of 235U (g 235U/cm of active length in assembly) in fresh light water reactor fuel in nuclear fuel fabrication facilities. The UNCL and other active neutron interrogation detectors have historically relied on americium lithium (241AmLi) sources to induce fission within the sample in question. Californium-252 is under consideration as a possible alternative to the traditional 241AmLi source. This work relied upon a combination of experiments and Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate the technical basis for the replacement of 241AmLi sources with 252Cf sources by evaluating the statistical uncertainty in the measurements incurred by each source and assessing the penetrability of neutrons from each source for the UNCL.