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Division Spotlight
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.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
H. Vincke, D. Forkel-Wirth, H. G. Menzel, S. Roesler, C. Theis, M. Widorski, K. Hatanaka, H. Yashima, T. Nakamura, S. Taniguchi, N. Nakao, A. Tamii
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 1 | October 2009 | Pages 5-10
Detectors | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (Part 1) / Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9092
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Radiation monitoring during operation of CERN's high-energy accelerators in general, and the Large Hadron Collider and its experiments in particular, poses a major challenge due to the stray radiation fields, which are characterized by a complex particle composition and a wide range of energies. In order to monitor ambient doses around workplaces and inside the machine tunnel, high-pressure ionization chambers (so-called IG5) and air-filled ionization chambers under atmospheric pressure (PMI) will be used. Because of the complexity of the radiation field, standard gamma or neutron radiation sources are not applicable to accurately calibrate monitors used in such environments. Hence, the use of Monte Carlo simulation programs like FLUKA is indispensable to obtain an appropriate monitor calibration. Following this idea the response of the aforementioned monitors to mixed particle fields ranging from thermal energies to several giga-electron-volts was simulated. Because neutrons are the main contributor to total dose at many locations around the accelerators, dedicated neutron experiments were carried out at the Research Center for Nuclear Physics, Osaka University, utilizing quasi-monoenergetic beams of 250 and 392 MeV to benchmark the simulated detector responses. Good agreement was found at 392 MeV, whereas at 250 MeV the calculations predicted considerably higher readings of the detector than the ones observed experimentally.