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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.
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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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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.
Hideo Harada, H. Takahashi, Arnold L. Aronson, Takeshi Kase, Kenji Konashi,†, Nobuyuki Sasao
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 24 | Number 2 | September 1993 | Pages 161-167
Technical Paper | Nonelectrical Application | doi.org/10.13182/FST93-A30222
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A system of nuclear transmutation is presented in which fission products and transuranics (TRU) are incinerated using 14-MeV neutrons produced by muoncatalyzed fusion (µCF) and a subcritical core composed of fission products and TRU, The 14-MeV neutrons produced by µCF are used to transmute 90Sr (fission product) by the (n,2n) reaction. The outcoming neutrons from the 90Sr cell transmute TRU through fission reactions and 99Tc through (n, γ) reactions. This fission energy is converted into electric energy to supply 4 GeV-25 mA deuteron beam power, which is used to produce µ− mesons. We also evaluate the production of tritium that is consumed as a fuel for µCF. The feasibility of the system was analyzed by the MCNP Monte Carlo neutron transport code. The results show that this system can be subcritical and can transmute fission products and TRU with an incineration half-life of ∼1 yr and that the deuteron beam energy and tritium fuel required to operate the system can be supplied within the system cycle itself.
