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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Development Of Near-Real Time Material Detection And Analysis By Coupling Electrochemical & Optical Spectroscopy Methods For Molten Salt Systems, Hunter Andrews Jan 2020

Development Of Near-Real Time Material Detection And Analysis By Coupling Electrochemical & Optical Spectroscopy Methods For Molten Salt Systems, Hunter Andrews

Theses and Dissertations

For both pyroprocessing and molten salt reactors (MSRs), it is desirable from a process control and nuclear safeguards perspective to monitor the species in the molten salts for material accountancy. Many traditional monitoring techniques, even simple salt sample retrieval, are time exhaustive or rendered useless for these systems due to the high thermal loads, high radiation zones, and corrosive nature of molten salts. Therefore, the main motivation for this work is the need for an online monitoring system for a molten salt system that is robust enough to handle the extreme environment yet deliver quantifiable salt concentrations. The intent of …


Reducing Material Attractiveness Utilizing Pu-238 And U-232, Cody Lloyd Jan 2020

Reducing Material Attractiveness Utilizing Pu-238 And U-232, Cody Lloyd

Theses and Dissertations

Decreasing the material attractiveness of uranium and plutonium materials is crucial to nuclear nonproliferation. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) implements safeguards across the world on a limited budget. Not only does decreasing material attractiveness reduce the possibility of proliferation, but also may lighten the financial burden on the IAEA if safeguards can be reduced. Two particular isotopes that have negative material attractiveness traits are 238Pu and 232U. Without isotopic separation technology, these isotopes cannot be removed from plutonium and uranium materials respectively. Both 238Pu and 232U produce large quantities of heat by alpha decay. High …


Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Aerospace Materials, Vehicle Shape And Astronaut Position At Lowering The Whole Body Effective Dose Equivalent In Deep Space, Daniel K. Bond Jan 2020

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Aerospace Materials, Vehicle Shape And Astronaut Position At Lowering The Whole Body Effective Dose Equivalent In Deep Space, Daniel K. Bond

Theses and Dissertations

As future crewed, deep space missions are being planned, it is important to assess how spacecraft design can be used to minimize radiation exposure. Collectively with shielding material, vehicle shape and astronaut position must be used to protect astronauts from the two primary sources of space radiation: Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) and Solar Particle Events (SPE). GCRs, which are composed of low intensity, highly energetic, and fully ionized stable and meta-stable isotopes, are considered a chronic source of radiation risk to the astronauts. SPEs, which originate from solar coronal mass ejections, are composed mostly of high intensity protons that can …