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Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
W. M. Stagey, B. L. Pilger, J. A. Mowrey, D. G. Norris, M. Dietsghe, E. A. Hoffman, B. A. Abighedid, A. W. Anthony, M. S. Ayres, T. P. Belflower, J. D. Bohner, S. F. Gaputlu, H. M. Goward, H. M. Diller, J. A. Favorite, P. T. Feir, J. S. Gustafson, N. L. Jenkins, T. L. Johnston, J. L. Martin, C. H. Nahass, D. M. Nichter, D. F. Parker, R. A. Sidwell, A. L. Turner, J. D. Wartell
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 27 | Number 3 | May 1995 | Pages 326-347
Technical Paper | Fusion Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30394
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It is suggested that weapons-grade plutonium could be processed through a transmutation facility to build up sufficient actinide and fission product inventories to serve as a deterrent to diversion or theft during subsequent storage, pending eventual use as fuel in commercial nuclear reactors. A transmutation facility consisting of a tokamak fusion neutron source surrounded by fuel assemblies containing the weapons-grade plutonium in the form of PuO2 pebbles in a lithium slurry is investigated. A design concept/operation scenario is developed for a facility that would be able to transmute the world's estimated surplus inventory of weapons-grade plutonium to 11% 240Pu concentration in ∼25 yr. The fusion neutron source would be based on plasma physics and plasma support technology being qualified in ongoing research and development (R&D) programs, and the plutonium fuel would be based on existing technology. A new R&D program would be required to qualify a refractory metal alloy structural material that would be needed to handle the high heat fluxes; otherwise, extensions of existing technologies and acceleration of existing R&D programs would seem to be adequate to qualify all required technologies. Such a facility might feasibly be deployed in 20 to 30 yr, or sooner with a crash program.