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Perpetual Atomics, QSA Global produce Am fuel for nuclear space power
U.K.-based Perpetual Atomics and U.S.-based QSA Global claim to have achieved a major step forward in processing americium dioxide to fuel radioisotope power systems used in space missions. Using an industrially scalable process, the companies said they have turned americium into stable, large-scale ceramic pellets that can be directly integrated into sealed sources for radioisotope power systems, including radioisotope heater units (RHUs) and radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs).
T. M. Tran, J. Ligou
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 79 | Number 3 | November 1981 | Pages 269-277
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE81-A19404
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The time-dependent linear Fokker-Planck equation governing the transport of fast ions in a spherical host medium is solved in the suprathermal energy range, including both continuous slowing down and angular diffusion. Because of the parabolic nature of the angular dispersion term, an implicit time-centered scheme is proposed. On the other hand, a second-order diamond approximation in energy and space is chosen to avoid the spurious numerical diffusion driven by the usual first-order methods. The last variable, the pitch angle cosine, is discretized by centered finite differences. Good accuracy is demonstrated when comparing the results of the proposed method with the “exact” values given in the literature for some benchmark problems or by checking energy and particle balance equations. A numerical code (CIRCE) based on this scheme has been developed; it can be coupled to standard one-dimensional hydrodynamics codes after a few straightforward modifications.