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Division Spotlight
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
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
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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.
Ken Okada, Masao Nomura, Yasuhiko Fujii
Nuclear Technology | Volume 129 | Number 1 | January 2000 | Pages 131-139
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3052
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Information is provided on the self-ignition temperature (SIT) of blown bitumen asphalt mixed with sodium nitrate and some chemicals that are added in the bituminization process to adjust pH and to immobilize the radioactive isotopes of Cs, Sr, and I. In each ignition temperature test, the prepared bitumen sample was heated at a constant rate of temperature increase, and the ignition point was measured. Among the tested chemicals added to the bitumen, Ni(NO3)2 shows a relatively large SIT decrease, and furthermore, the mixture of Ni(NO3)2 and AgNO3 has been shown to greatly lower the SIT of blown bitumen. It is suggested that, in general, segregation of these nitrates should be avoided in bituminization, and care should be taken in handling Ag in a Purex reprocessing plant from the viewpoint of waste treatment. Furthermore, the oxidation effects of Fe(NO3)3 were tested by measuring torque of the bitumen sample. It was confirmed that the addition of Fe(NO3)3 to bitumen rapidly oxidizes the bitumen and increases the viscosity of the bitumen mixture.
