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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
Latest News
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.
J.P. Squire, F.R. Chang Díaz, T.W. Glover, V.T. Jacobson, D.G. Chavers, R.D. Bengtson, E.A. Bering, III, R.W. Boswell, R.H. Goulding, M. Light
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 43 | Number 1 | January 2003 | Pages 111-117
Propulsion | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A11963576
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory (ASPL) of NASA's Johnson Space Center is performing research on a Variable Specific Impulse MagnetoPlasma Rocket (VASIMR). The VASIMR is a high power, radio frequency (RF) driven magnetoplasma rocket, capable of very high exhaust velocities, > 100 km/s. A NASA-led research team involving industry, academia and government facilities is pursuing the development of this concept in the United States. The ASPL's experimental research focuses on three major areas: helicon plasma production, ion cyclotron resonant frequency (ICRF) acceleration and plasma expansion in a magnetic nozzle. The VASIMR experiment (VX-10) performs experimental research that demonstrates the thruster concept at a total RF power on the order of 10 kW. A flexible four-magnet system, with a 1.3 Tesla maximum magnetic field strength, allows axial magnetic field profile shape effects to be studied. Power generated at 10 – 50 MHz with about 3 kW is used to perform helicon plasma source development. A 3 MHz RF transmitter capable of 100 kW is available for ICRF experiments. The primary diagnostics are: gas mass flow controllers, RF input power, Langmuir probes, Mach probe, retarding potential analyzers (RPA), microwave interferometer, neutral pressure measurements and plasma light emission. In addition, many thermocouples are attached inside the vacuum chamber to measure heat loads around the plasma discharge.
Helicon research has been done with hydrogen, deuterium, helium, nitrogen, argon, xenon and mixtures of these gases. Optimization studies have been performed with the magnetic field axial profile shape, antenna geometry, gas flow rate, gas tube geometry and RF frequency. ICRF experiments have begun, primarily using a high density (> 1018/m3) helium helicon discharge as a target. Over 6 kW of power has been applied using a simple antenna array. The latest results of helicon and ICRF experiments will be presented.