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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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Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
C. R. Walthers, E. M. Jenkins, D. W. Sedgley, T. H. Batzer, S. Konishi, S. O'Hira, Y. Naruse
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 1811-1813
Impurity Control and Plasma-Facing Component | Proceedings of the Ninth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Oak Brook, Illinois, October 7-11, 1990) | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29606
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In 1988, a prototypical vacuum system was added to the Tritium Systems Test Assembly (TSTA) at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Since then various pumping scenarios, which might be expected in a fusion reactor, have been performed without any serious shortcomings being apparent in the use of compound cryopumps as reactor high vacuum pumps. Last year, the question of whether a compound pump was necessary was addressed in a pair of runs in which deuterium helium mixtures were pumped on a single 4K activated charcoal panel. In these tests, the condensing stage of the pump was maintained at 77K and did not contribute to pumping either deuterium or helium. Results were very encouraging: in both tests the charcoal readily pumped helium until a max loading of 0.4 T 1 cm−2 of helium on charcoal was attained. Helium speed was not affected by deuterium which may have been pumped by either a condensing or sorbing mechanism or by a combination of both. In addition, the helium loading at saturation was 0.4 T 1 cm−2 even though the D2/He ratio was doubled between runs. Conjecture about why the charcoal helium capacity was constant led to the pump operation described in this paper. It was felt that measurement of helium capacity after careful deuterium preloads might help to explain the mechanism involved in co-pumping of a condensible and a noncondensible on a single 4K cryosorber surface. This paper presents the results of series of helium capacity runs preceded by a range of deuterium preloads and attempts to explain the mechanism involved.