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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.
Meeting Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Take steps on SNF and HLW disposal
Matt Bowen
With a new administration and Congress, it is time once again to ponder what will happen—if anything—on U.S. spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste management policy over the next few years. One element of the forthcoming discussion seems clear: The executive and legislative branches are eager to talk about recycling commercial SNF. Whatever the merits of doing so, it does not obviate the need for one or more facilities for disposal of remaining long-lived radionuclides. For that reason, making progress on U.S. disposal capabilities remains urgent, lest the associated radionuclide inventories simply be left for future generations to deal with.
In March, Rick Perry, who was secretary of energy during President Trump’s first administration, observed that during his tenure at the Department of Energy it became clear to him that any plan to move SNF “required some practical consent of the receiving state and local community.”1
R. W. Conn, F. Kantrowitz, W. F. Vogelsang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 49 | Number 3 | August 1980 | Pages 458-468
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT80-A17693
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For hybrid reactors that would directly enrich light water reactor fuel bundles with 239Pu, the fuel distribution across a bundle can be made to be more uniform than when 233U is produced from thorium. As expected, more fuel is produced from 238U than from 232Th per fusion event, although the fuel production per unit thermal power can be greater in the thorium-uranium cycle. The hybrid can be used to produce fissile fuel at a secure fuel production, reprocessing, and fabrication facility. The high support ratio of the hybrid would then allow 10 to 80 external fission reactors to be supported per secure site, depending on the conversion ratio of the off-site fission reactors. It is found that fuel to be shipped away from a secure site can be rendered resistant to diversion by irradiation to a burnup of 0.4 MWd/t in a low power fission reactor on-site.
