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radioactive waste

(Encyclopedia)radioactive waste, material containing the unusable radioactive byproducts of the scientific, military, and industrial applications of nuclear energy. Since its radioactivity presents a serious health...

electron-volt

(Encyclopedia)electron-volt, abbr. eV, unit of energy used in atomic and nuclear physics; 1 electron-volt is the energy transferred in moving a unit charge, positive or negative and equal to that charge on the elec...

Rickover, Hyman George

(Encyclopedia)Rickover, Hyman George, 1900–1986, American admiral, b. Russia. In World War II he served as head of the electrical section of the navy's Bureau of Ships. After the war he was assigned (1946) to the...

atomic bomb

(Encyclopedia)atomic bomb or A-bomb, weapon deriving its explosive force from the release of nuclear energy through the fission (splitting) of heavy atomic nuclei. The first atomic bomb was produced at the Los Alam...

fission

(Encyclopedia)fission, in physics: see nuclear energy and nucleus; see also atomic bomb. ...

Yucca Mountain

(Encyclopedia)Yucca Mountain, mountain in the SW Nevada desert about 100 mi (161 km) northwest of Las Vegas. It is the proposed site of a Dept. of Energy (DOE) repository for up to 77,000 metric tons of nuclear was...

magnetohydrodynamics

(Encyclopedia)magnetohydrodynamics măgnēˌtōhīˌdrōdīnămˈĭks [key], study of the motions of electrically conducting fluids and their interactions with magnetic fields. The principles of magnetohydrodynamic...

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

(Encyclopedia)Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Cambridge; coeducational; chartered 1861, opened 1865 in Boston, moved 1916. It has long been recognized as an outstanding technological institute and its Slo...

Savannah, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Savannah, river, 314 mi (505 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Tugaloo and Seneca rivers and flowing SE to the Atlantic Ocean; with the Tugaloo it forms the entire S.C.–Ga. boundary. Savanna...

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

(Encyclopedia)Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), international organization that came into being in 1961. It superseded the Organization for European Economic Cooperation, which had been ...