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Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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
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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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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.
E. Treille, J. Wendling, F. Plas
Nuclear Technology | Volume 174 | Number 3 | June 2011 | Pages 353-363
Technical Paper | TOUGH2 Symposium / Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A11745
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The choice of the Callovo-Oxfordian formation in eastern France for construction of a proposed repository for high-level, long-lived radioactive waste (HLW) is based primarily on the low hydraulic conductivity of the clay-rich host rock. This property is also intrinsically linked to a low capacity of the rock to evacuate the significant amounts of hydrogen gas generated over time by processes such as anoxic corrosion of metallic materials and radiolysis of organic waste. The effects of hydrogen production on the behavior and safety performance of the disposal system components must be evaluated for the operating and postclosure periods of the repository. In order to do this, numerical simulations using TOUGH2-MP were performed on a vitrified waste (HLW) disposal cell and its access drift, for the operating period. The objective was to investigate generation and transfer of hydrogen within and outside the disposal cell, coupled with the desaturation of the access drift near field due to the combined action of drift ventilation and the coupled behavior of dry air and hydrogen within the disposal cell. Particular attention was focused on the form of hydrogen (expressed or dissolved), total gas pressure buildup, degree of gas saturation, gas transport pathways, gas concentrations, and gas exchanges between the disposal cell and the access drift.Simulation results show the validity of the conceptual assumption based on anoxic conditions in the useful part of the disposal system. The major part of the hydrogen comes to the access drift during the operating phase. Internal boundaries between interface zones and concrete lining are preferential pathways for the gas transfer.
