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May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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Latest News
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. W. Petrie, G. H. Miley
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 64 | Number 1 | September 1977 | Pages 151-162
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE77-A27086
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Phase-space grouping techniques have been applied to two distinct problems in fusion product physics: (a) slowing down drift motion of highly energetic alpha particles in a symmetric toroidal field, and (b) first wall loading by 3.52-MeV alpha particles resulting from magnetic ripple. In the former, a weighted energy-loss approximation method permits the evolving orbits to be determined for any representative phase-space group. This enables rapid computation of several important suprathermal effects in a tokamak plasma. For example, code SYMALF, which embodies this idea, is applied to plasma heating and alpha-particle thermalization source problems. In the ripple field case, a probabilistic density function is employed to determine drift losses associated with ripple-trapped, 3.52-MeV alpha particles. When used to determine 3.52-MeV alpha-particle wall loadings, code RIPALF, which is based on this probability function, predicts the position of local “hot spots” along the first wall.