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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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Latest News
Nano Nuclear wins Air Force contract for Kronos MMR
New York City–based advanced nuclear technology developer Nano Nuclear Energy has been awarded a Direct-to-Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contract for its Kronos micro modular reactor (MMR) by AFWERX, the innovation and venture arm of the U.S. Air Force. The contract calls for AFWERX, with the 11th Civil Engineering Squadron, to explore the feasibility of deploying the Kronos MMR Energy System at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling (JBAB) in Washington, D.C.
William J. Walters
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 8 | August 2023 | Pages 2150-2160
Technical papers from: PHYSOR 2022 | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2161805
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The centrifugal nuclear thermal rocket is a concept for a liquid-fueled nuclear system that would allow for a much higher specific impulse than the more traditional solid-fueled nuclear thermal propulsion designs. Although some preliminary neutronics analyses have been done on conceptual designs, this work seeks to perform a more systematic analysis and optimization of design parameters and to investigate additional neutronics properties such as power distributions and reactivity coefficients. This work used OpenMC for neutronics analysis and Dakota for the parametric study and optimization. Inter- and intra-fuel element power distributions were calculated, and a strong radial dependence was noted within fuel elements that may pose a challenge to thermal constraints. A positive moderator temperature coefficient of 3.78 0.16 pcm/K was calculated for the reference model, which may pose a challenge for system design and control. The optimization study of reflector size, fuel spacing, fuel mass, and fuel element radius indicated many trade-offs in the design considerations, and that the baseline model can be significantly improved in all respects. Positive reactivity feedback can be minimized by reducing moderation, and peaking factors can be reduced by limiting the amount of fuel per fuel element, which also minimizes the system mass.