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A year in orbit: ISS deployment tests radiation detectors for future space missions
The predawn darkness on a cool Florida night was shattered by the ignition of nine Merlin engines on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The thrust of the engines shook the ground miles away. From a distance, the rocket appeared to slowly rise above the horizon. For the cargo onboard, the launch was anything but gentle, as the ignition of liquid oxygen generated more than 1.5 million pounds of force. After the rocket had been out of sight for several minutes, the booster dramatically returned to Earth with several sonic booms in a captivating show of engineering designed to make space travel less expensive and more sustainable.
Ryo Ito, Fu Nomoto, Yasuyuki Ogino, Keisuke Mukai, Juro Yagi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 3 | April-May 2024 | Pages 590-595
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2229673
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The operation of fusion reactors requires the development of a 6Li enrichment process that does not have a negative impact on the environment. This study focuses on a new two-liquid-phase chemical exchange system, liquid-metal/chloride molten salt system. In this system, 6Li is distributed unevenly between immiscible liquid metal and chloride molten salt. After two-liquid contacting mixing, a quadrupole inductively coupled plasma spectrometry measurement was performed. The measured isotope ratio of 6Li to 7Li was corrected with mass bias compensation, and separation factor α was obtained. In both systems (Li/LiCl-KCl system, and Li-Pb/LiCl-KCl system), the α values were greater than 1 at 648 K almost at a 68% confidence interval, showing that more 6Li was likely distributed to liquid metal than to chloride molten salt. These results suggest that this system is applicable to enrich 6Li under optimal temperature conditions.