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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Latest News
Sandia and Aeva evaluate intrusion detection system
Sandia National Laboratories is collaborating with the California-based Aeva Technologies, a developer of next-generation sensing and perception systems, on the development of technology for strengthening security at U.S. nuclear reactor sites.
Nicholas Thompson, Rene Sanchez, Joetta Goda, Kelsey Amundson, Theresa Cutler, Travis Grove, David Hayes, Jesson Hutchinson, Cole Kostelac, George McKenzie, Alexander McSpaden, William Myers, Jessie Walker
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 195 | Number 1 | November 2021 | Pages S17-S36
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2021.1947105
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Comet is a general-purpose, heavy-duty, vertical-lift assembly designed for flexibility in conducting a variety of critical experiments. It is currently located at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) in Nevada. In the past, Comet resided at Technical Area-18 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as part of the Los Alamos Critical Experiments Facility (LACEF). The Comet assembly was relocated to NCERC in 2008 and became fully operational in June of 2011. The first critical experiment performed on Comet at NCERC was a verification of one of the previous configurations of the Zeus experiment series. Over the next 10 years, many additional experiments followed including other Zeus configurations as well as completely new designs. This paper discusses the Comet vertical-lift assembly, the transition from LACEF to NCERC, and a selection of experiments that have been performed on Comet during its first 10 years of operation at NCERC.