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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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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Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Dragonfly, a Pu-fueled drone heading to Titan, gets key NASA approval
Curiosity landed on Mars sporting a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) in 2012, and a second NASA rover, Perseverance, landed in 2021. Both are still rolling across the red planet in the name of science. Another exploratory craft with a similar plutonium-238–fueled RTG but a very different mission—to fly between multiple test sites on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon—recently got one step closer to deployment.
On April 25, NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) announced that the Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s icy moon passed its critical design review. “Passing this mission milestone means that Dragonfly’s mission design, fabrication, integration, and test plans are all approved, and the mission can now turn its attention to the construction of the spacecraft itself,” according to NASA.
Kiyoshi Yoshikawa, Shinji Kouda, Yasushi Yamamoto, Kouichi Maeda
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 264-283
Technical Paper | Energy Conversion | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A20260
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A two-dimensional code for an axisymmetrical plasma direct energy converter (PDC), the Kyoto University Numerical Analysis for Ion Trajectories in Axisymmetrical System (KUNAITAS), has been developed with the aid of the two-dimensional code Kyoto University Advanced DART (KUAD), including evaluation of atomic processes. The two-dimensional code was applied successfully to a PDC design for the Fusion Engineering Facility based on mirror confinement, with space-charge effects taken into account, yielding ∼60% recovery efficiency at pressures of 10−4 Pa. Calculations are made for particle trajectories of incident ions, slow ions and electrons, and secondary electrons in the presence of expanding magnetic fields and self-consistent electric fields with particle trajectories.
