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Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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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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.
Ihor O. Bohachevsky
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 2 | Number 1 | January 1982 | Pages 110-119
Technical Paper | ICF Chamber Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST82-A20741
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Many inertial confinement fusion reactors will employ liquid lithium to breed tritium, to remove heat from reactor vessels, and to protect the interior walls of the vessel. Heat loads on the liquid lithium will consist of intense pulses that are short in comparison to hydrodynamic and thermal relaxation times and therefore will generate pressure pulses and/or pressure waves. The generation process is investigated analytically and numerically. Analytic solutions are derived for liquid blankets with thicknesses comparable to the neutron energy deposition depth contained between two structural shells and for free surface layers with thicknesses much smaller than the depth of neutron energy deposition. Results indicate that the amplitudes of the neutron-generated pressure waves are comparable to the mean pressure rise that would be obtained if the energy were deposited so slowly and uniformly that the waves did not develop. Numerically investigated are pressure pulses in lithium layers, which are initially at the vapor pressure. Results indicate that rapid heating occurs at constant specific volume (isochorically) and therefore results in a sharp and intense pressure rise. However, the resulting pressure wave dissipates after propagating only a few millimetres through the layer if the lithium contains any fraction of the vapor phase.