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Division Spotlight
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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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.
Jacob Jorne
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 18 | Number 3 | November 1990 | Pages 519-522
Technical Notes on Cold Fusion | doi.org/10.13182/FST90-A29289
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Coldfusion of deuterium by electrolysis of heavy water onto a palladium (or titanium) cathode has been reported. Contrary to the assumption of Fleischmann and Pons that electrochemically compressed D+ exists inside the palladium cathode, the observations of Jones et al. can be partially explained by the simultaneous presence of deuteride D− and the highly mobile positive deuterium ion D+. The opposite charges reduce the intranuclear distance and enhance the tunneling fusion rate. Furthermore alloying of lithium with palladium can stabilize a negatively charged deuteride ion due to the salinelike character of lithium deuteride. The enormous pressure (or fugacity), achieved by the applied electrochemical potential (1030 atm), is a virtual pressure that would have existed in equilibrium with palladium deuteride (PdDx). It is speculated that nuclear fusion occurs at the surface, and the PdDx serves as a reservoir for the supply of deuteride ions.
