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Division Spotlight
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
Standards Program
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Dragonfly, a Pu-fueled drone heading to Titan, gets key NASA approval
Curiosity landed on Mars sporting a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) in 2012, and a second NASA rover, Perseverance, landed in 2021. Both are still rolling across the red planet in the name of science. Another exploratory craft with a similar plutonium-238–fueled RTG but a very different mission—to fly between multiple test sites on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon—recently got one step closer to deployment.
On April 25, NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) announced that the Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s icy moon passed its critical design review. “Passing this mission milestone means that Dragonfly’s mission design, fabrication, integration, and test plans are all approved, and the mission can now turn its attention to the construction of the spacecraft itself,” according to NASA.
Jessica Mitchell, Robert M. Counce, Jack S. Watson, B. B. Spencer, G. D. Del Cul
Nuclear Technology | Volume 170 | Number 3 | June 2010 | Pages 422-429
Technical Paper | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT10-A10328
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Recycle of nitric acid in the UREX+ process requires removal of acetic acid. An analysis of the effects of acetic acid in each process step indicates no step will be significantly affected by the concentrations expected. Thus, acetic acid removal can be placed after the last salts are removed, just before the nitric acid is recycled. Two promising removal options have been considered, solvent extraction and distillation. Distillation requires removal of most of the water before large fractions of acetic acid are removed. The process would be energy intensive and would involve the handling of extremely concentrated nitric acid; therefore, solvent extraction appears to be more attractive.
