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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
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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.
V. Ya. Goloborod'ko, Ya. I. Kolesnichenko, S. N. Reznik, V. A. Yavorskij
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 25 | Number 3 | May 1994 | Pages 249-257
Technical Paper | Alpha-Particle Special / Plasma Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A30281
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A kinetic equation is derived for the neoclassical distribution function of alpha particles with orbits intersecting or approaching the magnetic axis of a tokamak. This equation takes into account both the collisional slowing down and the pitch-angle scattering of alpha particles. An equation with a simplified pitchangle scattering term is solved analytically, and the distribution function obtained is used to find the alpha-particle bootstrap current at the magnetic axis. It is shown that the pitch-angle scattering leads to an alpha-particle current in the near-axis region that is larger than the one predicted from early neoclassical theory, which allows only for the slowing down of alpha particles.
