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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.
Klaas Bakker, Rudy J. M. Konings
Nuclear Technology | Volume 115 | Number 1 | July 1996 | Pages 91-99
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35278
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The thermal conductivity of UO2 is an important parameter in the design of nuclear fuel assemblies. The thermal conductivity can be reduced by radiation-induced porosity, leading to increased safety risks. In the literature, an analytical equation has been suggested to describe the influence of randomly ordered ellipsoidal porosity on thermal conductivity. However, in the case where the shape and the distribution of the pores is very complex, as in irradiated nuclear fuel, this equation is less well suited. The finite element method is introduced as a computational technique to take into account the influence of complex porosity structures on the thermal conductivity. Using the combination of image analysis and the finite element method, an equation has been obtained that describes the relation between the average elongated form of the pores and the overall thermal conductivity. Both the finite element method and image analysis are tools to estimate the thermal conductivity of high-burnup nuclear fuel.
