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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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.
Steven J. Pemberton, Ryan P. Abbott, Per F. Peterson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 43 | Number 3 | May 2003 | Pages 378-383
Technical Paper | Chambers and Chamber Wall Protection Methods | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A281
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The use of swirling annular vortex flow inside beam entrance tubes can protect beam-line structural materials in chambers for heavy-ion inertial fusion energy (IFE) applications. An annular wall jet, or vortex tube, is generated by injecting liquid tangent to the inner surface of a tube wall with both axially and azimuthally directed velocity components. A layer of liquid then lines the beam tube wall, which may improve the effectiveness of neutron shielding, and condenses and removes vaporized coolant that may enter the beam tubes. Vortex tubes have been constructed and tested with a thickness of three-tenths the pipe radius. Analysis of the flow is given, along with experimental examples of vortex tube fluid mechanics and an estimate of the layer thickness, based on simple mass conservation considerations.