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Division Spotlight
Mathematics & Computation
Division members promote the advancement of mathematical and computational methods for solving problems arising in all disciplines encompassed by the Society. They place particular emphasis on numerical techniques for efficient computer applications to aid in the dissemination, integration, and proper use of computer codes, including preparation of computational benchmark and development of standards for computing practices, and to encourage the development on new computer codes and broaden their use.
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.
Hangbok Choi, Won Il Ko, Myung Seung Yang, Ihn Namgung, Bok-Gyun Na
Nuclear Technology | Volume 134 | Number 2 | May 2001 | Pages 130-148
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT01-A3191
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Direct Use of spent Pressurized water reactor fuel In Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactors (DUPIC) fuel-handling technique has been investigated through a conceptual design study to estimate the unit cost that can be used for the DUPIC fuel cycle cost calculation. The conceptual design study has shown that fresh DUPIC fuel can be transferred to the core following the existing spent-fuel discharge route, provided that new fuel-handling equipment, such as the manipulator, opening/sealing tool of shipping casks, new fuel magazine, new fuel ram, dryer, gamma-ray detector, etc., are installed. The reverse path loading option is known to minimize the number of additional pieces of equipment for fuel handling, because it utilizes the existing spent-fuel handling equipment, and the discharge of spent DUPIC fuel can be done through the existing spent-fuel handling system without any modification. However, because the decay heat of spent DUPIC fuel is much higher than that of spent natural uranium fuel, the extra cooling capacity should be supplemented in the spent-fuel storage bay. Based on the conceptual design study, the capital cost for DUPIC fuel handling and extra storage cooling capacity was estimated to be $3 750 000 (as of December 1999) per CANDU plant. The levelized unit cost of DUPIC fuel handling was then obtained by considering the amount of fuel that will be required during the lifetime of a plant, which is 5.13 $/kg heavy metal. Compared with the other unit costs of the fuel cycle components, it is expected that DUPIC fuel handling has only a minor effect on the overall fuel cycle cost.
