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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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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.
Satoshi Konishi, Masahide Hara, Kenji Okuno
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 28 | Number 3 | October 1995 | Pages 652-657
Tritium Processing | Proceedings of the Fifth Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion, and Isotopic Applications Belgirate, Italy May 28-June 3, 1995 | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30478
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Some variations and extensions of a Fuel Cleanup System based on the combination of palladium diffuser and a vapor electrolysis cell were studied to improve the flexibility to accept broader range of flow rate, gas contents and operation modes. Processing of inert gas - CH4, H2, He2O mixtures in a closed loop showed satisfactory detritiation, with the processing of methane by catalytic steam reforming and oxidation, and electrolytic oxidation. The decomposition of hydrocarbon on the anode side of the ceramic electrolysis cell was tested to study the feasibility as an oxidizer. The zirconia ceramic membrane with Pt electrode are tested with methane at the anode for oxidation, and water vapor on the cathode for reduction. The cell converted methane to carbon dioxide and vapor with high efficiency and simultaneously decomposed water vapor to hydrogen. This application of the cell simplifies the process, and eliminates the use of catalyst and oxygen gas. A versatile fuel cleanup that eliminates most of previos concerns and improves the performance is proposed.
