Fuels and Energy Sources

Nuclear energy

Stories

122
6160
0
0
30
Facility Focus: Defense
In 1951, the first nuclear reactor in Idaho was built, starting a legacy at what is now Idaho National Laboratory (INL). INL is the site where 52 pioneering nuclear reactors were designed and...
Feature Image
Briefs: Test & Measurement
The objective of this effort was to design, fabricate, integrate, and fly a nuclear thermal rocket without having to build massive ground test facilities. Furthermore, this nuclear rocket would...
Feature Image
Facility Focus: Medical
This year, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) marks 75 years as a research institution. Located in Oak Ridge, TN, ORNL is the largest US Department of Energy science and energy laboratory, conducting basic and...
Feature Image
Facility Focus: Government
Sandia National Laboratories — headquartered in Albuquerque, MN, with a principal lab in Livermore, CA — is operated and managed by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC (a wholly owned...
Feature Image
Facility Focus: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Located in Argonne, IL, Argonne National Laboratory (ARL) is a multidisciplinary science and engineering research center. Born out of the University of Chicago’s work on the Manhattan Project in the...
Feature Image
Facility Focus: Medical
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, WA, has been operated by Battelle and its predecessors since the lab’s inception in 1965. For more than 50...
Feature Image
Facility Focus: Research Lab
Opened in 1947 on the former site of the U.S. military's Camp Upton in New York, Brookhaven National Lab's (BNL) initial mission centered on the peaceful exploration of the atom. Particle accelerators, leading...
Feature Image
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
For years, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been used in a variety of applications, from passports to inventory tracking. Homeland security concerns have heightened the need...
Feature Image
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Fluid Structure Coupling (FSC) technology is a highly efficient and passive method to control the way fluids and structures communicate and dictate the behavior of a system. This...
Feature Image
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Optically Modulated Miniature Magnetometer
The optically modulated miniature magnetometer (OMMM) is intended to replace two separate instruments (each with their respective mass and power allotments) that are commonly needed together for scientific studies of magnetic fields — a triaxial fluxgate vector magnetometer and an optically pumped alkali...
Articles: Software
Imagine moving an object using only your mind. Software company Unique Logic’s Time on Task exercise makes that possible, at least on a computer screen. The game is one of the company’s...
Feature Image
Application Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The instruments aboard NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity” rover receive their power from a radioisotope system assembled and tested at Idaho National Laboratory. The Multi- Mission...
Feature Image
Articles: Energy
For more than two decades, nearly all renewable energy endeavors have incorporated the latest advances in turbomachinery design and turbomachinery manufacturing technology in an evolving...
Feature Image
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Next-generation heat-pipe radiator technologies are being developed at the NASA Glenn Research Center to provide advancements in heat-rejection systems for space power and...
Feature Image
Articles: Photonics/Optics
On August 6th, 2012 the automatic Mars Science Laboratory rover named Curiosity landed on Mars. One of the scientific instruments on board is ChemCam, which has a pulsed laser capable of ablating a...
Feature Image
Briefs: Information Technology
The avionics system software for human-rated launch vehicles requires an implementation approach that is robust to failures, especially the failure of sensors used to monitor...
Feature Image
Articles: Imaging
In a world where oil production is declining, and where both nuclear energy plant and spent-fuel storage safety have proven to be inadequate, there is increased pressure on solar power generation to...
Feature Image
Articles: Research Lab
Innovators at NASA’s Glenn Research Center design game-changing spaceflight technologies that advance exploration of our solar system. They have also established themselves as global leaders in aeronautics by...
Feature Image
Briefs: Information Technology
JPL collaborated with experts from industry and other organizations to develop a conceptual model of quantities, units, dimensions, and values based on the current work of the ISO...
Feature Image
Briefs: Software
Mission Operations Planning and Scheduling System (MOPSS)
MOPSS is a generic framework that can be configured on the fly to support a wide range of planning and scheduling applications. It is currently used to support seven missions at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in roles that include science planning, mission planning, and real-time...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Wide-Range Neutron Detector for Space Nuclear Applications
A digital, wide-range, neutron detection (WRND) system in a compact, VME form factor monitors neutron activity within the core of a nuclear reactor across the reactor’s entire operating range, from 1.0 n/cm2/s up to 1010 n/cm2/s. This allows for a reduction in the complexity of...
Briefs: Software
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) is the highest- flux reactor-based source of neutrons for condensed-matter...
Feature Image
Briefs: Physical Sciences
An alternative design concept for nuclear thermal rocket engines for interplanetary spacecraft calls for the use of grooved-ring fuel elements. Beyond spacecraft rocket engines, this concept...
Feature Image
Articles: Electronics & Computers
An ever-increasing reliance on software control has meant that many companies from non-aerospace business sectors (automotive, nuclear power, MRI scanners, financial...
Feature Image
Articles: Energy
The amount of energy the United States consumes increases every year and this growth in energy consumption outpaces energy production. To fill this gap, the U.S. imports 35% of its energy. More importantly, the...
Feature Image
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Design Concept for a Nuclear Reactor-Powered Mars Rover
A report presents a design concept for an instrumented robotic vehicle (rover) to be used on a future mission of exploration of the planet Mars. The design incorporates a nuclear fission power system to provide long range, long life, and high power capabilities unachievable through the use of...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., a subcontractor of Societatea Nationala Nucleoelectrica S.A. (SNN) of Romania, contracted Badger Meter to model, test, and produce a set of precision valves...
Feature Image
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Accelerometers used for shock and vibration measurement in extreme environments require special consideration in the design and manufacturing process. Certain...
Feature Image
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Dielectric Heaters for Testing Spacecraft Nuclear Reactors
Like the electrical-resistance heaters used heretofore for such testing, the dielectric heaters would be inserted in the reactors in place of nuclear fuel rods. A typical heater according to the proposal would consist of a rod of lossy dielectric material sized and shaped like a fuel rod...

Videos