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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
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Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
H. Takahashi, A. Okamoto, Y. Kawamura, T. Kumagai, A. Daibo, S. Kitajima
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 1 | May 2013 | Pages 404-407
doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A16969
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Keeping compatibility between steady state gas puffing and stable radio frequency (RF) discharge, helium recombining plasma production was achieved in an RF plasma device. In this experiment, axial position of orifice, which suppresses backflow of secondary gas, was modified to increase electron density at a test region. Changing neutral pressure at the test region from 11 Pa to 21 Pa, the electron temperature, the electron density and the wavelength spectrum were measured. The electron temperature decreased with increasing neutral pressure and finally becomes about 3 eV. The electron density shows similar pressure dependence as the electron temperature. When the neutral pressure increases to 15 Pa, the line spectra from highly excited helium atoms were clearly observed. The electron temperature estimated from these line spectral intensities is about 0.05 eV, which indicates that the electron density reduction is caused by volumetric recombination occurring at the periphery of the plasma column.