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Division Spotlight
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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.
Won Il Ko, Ho Dong Kim, Myung Seung Yang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 138 | Number 2 | May 2002 | Pages 123-139
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT02-A3284
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This study compares some properties of irradiated Direct Use of Spent Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) Fuel In Canada Deuterium Uranium reactor (CANDU) (DUPIC ) fuels with properties of other fuel cycles. The properties include the radiotoxicity, decay heat, activity, and actinide content embedded in various spent fuels or high-level wastes, which could be measures of the effectiveness of waste management. From radiotoxicity analysis of fuel cycles, the toxicity of the DUPIC option based on 1 GW(electric)yr is much smaller than those of other fuel cycle options such as the PWR once-through mode, mixed oxide fuel recycling mode, and CANDU once-through mode. The analysis shows that the value is just about half the order of magnitude of other fuel cycles until decayed to a level below the toxicity of initial ore. This means that the DUPIC option could have an indirect benefit on the environmental effects of long-term spent-fuel disposal. From total activity analysis of various fuel cycle options, the activity per metric ton heavy metal of spent fuel is the lowest in natural uranium CANDU fuel, but in the case of activity based on 1 GW(electric)yr, the DUPIC option has the smallest activity. In the meanwhile, from the activity analysis of 99Tc and 237Np, which are important to the long-term transport in geologic media, the DUPIC option was being contained in only about half of those other options. In conclusion, compared to other fuel cycle cases, the irradiated DUPIC fuels would have good properties from the perspective of environmental effects.