Tag

Argon

All articles tagged with #argon

Idaho’s Argon-Filled Hot Cell Earns Nuclear Historic Landmark Plaque While Continuing Full-Capacity Work
energy1 month ago

Idaho’s Argon-Filled Hot Cell Earns Nuclear Historic Landmark Plaque While Continuing Full-Capacity Work

The Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF) at Idaho National Laboratory—the largest inert-atmosphere hot cell filled with argon and shielded by four feet of concrete—was honored with a Nuclear Historic Landmark plaque by the American Nuclear Society, recognizing its pivotal past. Yet the facility remains actively busy, supporting sodium loop experiments, ongoing fuel examinations, and NRAD neutron-imaging work as part of Idaho’s broader nuclear‑energy revival and research program.

The Moon’s Fragile Exosphere: A Gas Cloud Disturbed by Lander Plumes
space2 months ago

The Moon’s Fragile Exosphere: A Gas Cloud Disturbed by Lander Plumes

The Moon hosts a real but incredibly thin exosphere—mostly helium, neon, and argon—about a quadrillionth as dense as Earth's sea-level air. The gas is continually replenished and lost via solar wind, micrometeoroids, and surface processes, and can be locally overwhelmed by a nearby lander's exhaust, making contamination a key challenge for future measurements. LADEE data first detected neon and showed the exosphere varies with local time, underscoring that there is no stable atmosphere, only a dynamic, surface-interacting gas population that records both solar and lunar history.