|
|
|
Sort Order |
|
|
|
Items / Page
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Srl | Item |
| 1 |
ID:
089159
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) is a widely used technique for determining the orbits of objects in space with high accuracy. There are at least 40 satellite laser ranging stations located in 23 countries. These stations are part of an international scientific collaboration, the International Laser Ranging Service, based at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, USA, which collects, merges, analyzes, and distributes data.
There are seven known laser ranging stations in China. The average laser power employed at most of the of the Chinese stations is below 1 watt, although experimental systems of approximately 40 watts have been used to characterize objects such as space debris.
This paper describes the potential effects of satellite laser ranging on earth-imaging satellites. It posits that although there are some circumstances that will result in permanent damage, in most cases laser ranging would have a low probability of permanent damage to the satellite's sensitive imaging sensor (detector). Due to the low probability of damage, laser ranging is an ineffective anti-satellite weapon. Nonetheless, the potential for even some damage warrants development of international rules governing satellite laser ranging.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2 |
ID:
089163
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
France is the only country in the world ever to operate a commercial scale (1,200 MWe) sodium cooled, plutonium fuelled fast breeder reactor, the Superphenix at Creys-Malville. However, the French fast breeder reactor program turned out to be too costly and could never compete with light water reactor technology. Numerous technical problems, low uranium prices and massive opposition exacerbated the poor economic and operational performance of the fast breeder reactor. Superphenix only operated about half of the time that it was officially connected to the grid and was shut down in 1998 with a lifetime load factor of less than 7%. The Superphenix predecessor, Phenix at Marcoule, which began operating in 1973 and will be shut down later in 2009, has experienced numerous sodium leaks and fires and a series of potentially serious reactivity incidents. The lifetime load factor of approximately 45% is one of the lowest in the world.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 3 |
ID:
089168
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
This paper reviews the history, status, and probable future of fast reactor and associated fuel cycle development in Japan. The fast breeder reactor and its closed fuel cycle have been the cornerstone of Japan's nuclear-energy development program since the 1950s. For economic, technological, and political reasons, Japan's development and implementation of these technologies is significantly delayed. The budget for fast breeder reactor development has steadily declined since the mid-1990s, and its commercialization target has slipped from the 1980s to the 2050s. An accident at the Monju prototype reactor contributed to delays and triggered a fundamental shift from R&D and early commercialization to an emphasis on advanced fuel cycles.
Nevertheless, Japan is still committed to fast-reactor development. This paper examines the motivation for its continued commitment to a fast reactor program and concludes that several non-technological factors, such as bureaucratic inertia, commitments to local communities, and an absence of R&D oversight, have contributed to this entrenched position. Japan is currently reorganizing its R&D programs with the goal of operating a demonstration breeder reactor by approximately 2025. This effort is in response to the government sponsored "Nuclear Power Nation Plan" and the Bush Administration's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. Breeder R&D programs face significant obstacles such as plutonium-stockpile management, spent fuel management, fuel cycle technologies, and arrangements for cost and risk sharing between government, industry and local governments. As a result, it is unlikely that fast breeder reactor (FBR) and fuel cycle development programs will move forward as planned.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 4 |
ID:
089157
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
This article gives a historical and technical review of the U.S. gas centrifuge efforts between 1934 and 1985. The first section tells of how the United States initially led in centrifuge design, only to abandon the still-immature technology in the midst of the Manhattan Project. While interest in the technology continued in Europe, the United States decided that centrifuges were not a viable alternative to existing gaseous-diffusion plants. Five years later, U.S. spies learned of important Soviet achievements in centrifuge design, which, it appeared, might place centrifuges in direct competition with gaseous diffusion. When combined with European enthusiasm for the centrifuge, the United States faced the prospect of losing its control on the enrichment market in the West. Accordingly, the United States organized a program to rebuild its centrifuge dominance. Over the next 25 years, it led the world in machine performance but ultimately failed to commercialize its designs for a variety of reasons. The basic specifications and performance data for several of the U.S. centrifuges designed and tested during these years are reported here for the first time in the public domain.
The United States also made a number of contributions in the theoretical domain that were openly shared over the course of the U.S. program. Most of these fell into the field of fluid dynamics, developed to guide the design and optimization of centrifuges. The most important elements, especially those relating to the calculation of separative power, are described in Theoretical Developments. These are of interest to policy-makers because they can be used to predict the rate at which centrifuges produce fissile material for nuclear weapons, an important factor for nuclear nonproliferation. They are also used in calculations related to multi-isotope separation, which is important for nuclear forensics. Examples of both kinds of policy analysis are given in articles by Glaser1 and Wood2 appearing in an earlier issue of Science and Global Security. The U.S. theory is used here to derive a simple equation that enables policy-makers to make good estimates for the separative power of a real centrifuge by knowing only its length and speed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 5 |
ID:
089165
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
India has long pursued a fast breeder program, motivated in part by the availability of only poor quality uranium resources within the country. But progress so far has been disappointing, with only one test reactor having been constructed and having a chequered operating history. The larger Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor that is being constructed has a design that compromises safety and will produce expensive electricity, but could be used as a way to convert reactor-grade plutonium to weapon-grade plutonium. Projections offered by the nuclear establishment of fast growth of breeder reactors are methodologically flawed and based on very optimistic assumptions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|