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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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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Researchers use one-of-a-kind expertise and capabilities to test fuels of tomorrow
At the Idaho National Laboratory Hot Fuel Examination Facility, containment box operator Jake Maupin moves a manipulator arm into position around a pencil-thin nuclear fuel rod. He is preparing for a procedure that he and his colleagues have practiced repeatedly in anticipation of this moment in the hot cell.
Gerald P. Jackson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 1 | December 2022 | Pages S107-S112
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1997057
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Low-mass antimatter-based propulsion systems are well matched to low-mass unmanned spacecraft sent to explore exoplanets and transmit back scientific observations. In the case of nearby habitable-zone exoplanet Proxima b, flyby missions as short as 20 years are being contemplated. In order to achieve spacecraft velocities greater than 2% of the speed of light, exhaust particle velocities commensurate with kinetic energies of at least 1 MeV/nucleon are required. The design of a nuclear propulsion system capable of such particle energies is presented. The scope of this technical note is restricted to the nuclear physics of antiproton-induced fission, classical physics of collimating charged exhaust particles, and the accelerator physics of a particle trap within which the fission events are generated. Other vital issues such as antimatter production and storage are the subject of papers in other journals more appropriate for these subjects.