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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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 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.
Hangbok Choi, Won Il Ko, Myung Seung Yang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 134 | Number 2 | May 2001 | Pages 110-129
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT01-A3190
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A preliminary conceptual design of a Direct Use of spent Pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel In Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactors (DUPIC) fuel fabrication plant was studied, which annually converts spent PWR fuel of 400 tonnes heavy element (HE) into CANDU fuel. The capital and operating costs were estimated from the viewpoint of conceptual design. Assuming that the annual discount rate is 5% during the construction (5 yr) and operation period (40 yr) and contingency is 25% of the capital cost, the levelized unit cost (LUC) of DUPIC fuel fabrication was estimated to be 616 $/kg HE, which is mostly governed by annual operation and maintenance costs that correspond to 63% of LUC. Among the operation and maintenance cost components being considered, the waste disposal cost has the dominant effect on LUC (~49%). From sensitivity analyses of production capacity, discount rate, and contingency, it was found that the production capacity of the plant is the major parameter that affects the LUC.
