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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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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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.
G. K. Pandey, I. Banerjee, G. Padmakumar, C. Anandababu, K. K. Rajan, G. Vaidyanathan, P. Kalyanasundaram, S. C. Chetal, Baldev Raj
Nuclear Technology | Volume 175 | Number 3 | September 2011 | Pages 692-699
Technical Note | NURETH-13 Special / Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A12516
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A sodium-cooled, 500-MW(electric) prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) is under construction in Kalpakkam, India. The PFBR core houses various subassemblies that are supported vertically inside the core by the sleeves provided in the grid plate. A small radial gap exists between the grid plate sleeve and the foot to facilitate easy handling of subassemblies. It is natural that there will be some leakage flow through this radial gap into the hot and cold pools of the PFBR. To minimize this leakage flow, top and bottom labyrinths are provided on the foot of the subassemblies. The total leak flow rate permitted from the top labyrinth is 195 kg/s, whereas the leak flow rate allowed through the bottom labyrinth is 436 kg/s. Labyrinth-type sealing devices have been developed by carrying out experimental studies. Based on various parametric studies, the labyrinth geometry was optimized. It was found that apart from the clearance between the foot and sleeve, important parameters affecting pressure drop are groove profile, groove pitch, groove-depth-to-width ratio, etc. Taking into account the outcome of these studies, helical square grooved labyrinths have been designed and manufactured for PFBR. This paper presents the details of the similarity criteria followed, experimental methodology applied, and results obtained from the experiments along with their transposability to reactor conditions.