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Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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
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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
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.
J. D. Lee
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 805-810
Neutronics and Shielding | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22959
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The nuclear performance of a candidate fission-suppressed, U233-producing blanket is assessed. It is predicted to have a breeding ratio (fusile + fissile) of 1.68 and produce U233 at a rate of 8030 kg/year from 3140 MW of DT fusion and a blanket coverage of 96%. Blanket energy multiplication is estimated to vary between 1.3 and 2.0 as the U233/Th232 ratio varies between 0 and 0.5%. Heterogeneous effects in the blanket's pebble bed configuration were found to be important and more detailed analysis is needed to more accurately predict Li6 content required and U233 fission power versus U233 content.