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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.
Hiroshi Takahashi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 111 | Number 1 | July 1995 | Pages 149-162
Technical Paper | Enrichment and Reprocessing System | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A35153
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Transmutation of minor actinides and long-lived fission products using a proton accelerator has many advantages over a transmutor operated in a critical condition. The energy required for this transmutation can be reduced by multiplying the spallation neutrons in a subcritical assembly surrounding the spallation target. Study was done on the relation between the energy requirements and the multiplication factor k of the subcritical assembly, while varying the range of several parameters in the spallation target. A slightly subcritical reactor is superior to a reactor with large subcriticality in the context of the energy requirement of a small proton accelerator, the extent of radiation damage, and other safety problems. To transmute the longlived fission products without consuming much fissile material, the transmutor reactor must have a good neutron economy, which can be obtained by using a transmutor operated by a proton accelerator. Consideration is given to the use of minor actinides to improve neutronic characteristics, such as achieving a long fuel burnup rather than simply transmuting this valuable material.