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Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2021)
February 9–11, 2021
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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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Notes on fusion
The ST25-HTS tokamak.
Governments around the world have been interested in fusion for more than 70 years. Fusion research was largely secret until 1968, when the Soviets unveiled exciting results from their tokamak (a magnetic confinement fusion device with a particular configuration that produces a toroidal plasma). The Soviets realized that tokamaks were not useful as weapons but could produce plasma in the million-degree temperature range to demonstrate Soviet scientific and technical prowess to the world.
Following this breakthrough, government laboratories around the world continued to pursue various methods of confining hot plasma to understand plasma physics under extreme conditions, getting closer and closer to the conditions necessary for fusion energy production. Tokamaks have been by far the most successful configuration. In the 1990s, the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory produced 10 MW of fusion power using deuterium-tritium fusion. A few years later, the Joint European Torus (JET) in the United Kingdom increased that to 16 MW, getting close to breakeven using 24 MW of power to heat the plasma.
Ruixuan Han, Liucheng Liu, Rui Tu, Wei Xiao, Yingying Li, Huailin Li, Dan Shao
Nuclear Technology | Volume 195 | Number 2 | August 2016 | Pages 192-203
Technical Paper | dx.doi.org/10.13182/NT15-109
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Iodine atom interstitial configurations and diffusion in bulk β-SiC and α-Zr are calculated using first-principles calculations and the nudged elastic band method. The formation energy of an I interstitial in bulk silicon carbide (SiC) is ten times higher than that of an I interstitial in bulk Zr. The I interstitial is very difficult to introduce into bulk SiC compared with the doping process in bulk Zr. The diffusion mechanisms of an I atom in SiC and Zr are exchange mechanisms. Iodine interstitial diffusion in bulk SiC is roughly an isotropic process along a path that is a series of combinations of ISi → Ic and Ic → ISi, with a diffusion barrier of 1.20 eV and an attempt-to-diffuse frequency Γ0 25.12 THz. Meanwhile, I interstitial diffusion in bulk Zr is an anisotropic process. An I interstitial atom diffuses mainly between two Zr atom [0001] layers along a zigzag path with a diffusion barrier of 0.16 eV and an attempt-to-diffuse frequency Γ0 = 2.88 THz. In general, the diffusion rate of an I interstitial in bulk SiC is lower than that in bulk Zr in the temperature range from 290 to 3000 K. The defect effect on I diffusion is an interesting topic for future study.