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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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 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.
R. T. McGrath, A. J. Russo, R. B. Campbell, R. D. Watson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 1805-1816
Plasma-Facing Component | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29981
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tokamaks currently in operation deposit on the order of 1–30 MW/m2 onto plasma facing surfaces during normal operation and hundreds of MW/m2 for shorter periods of time (0.1–3 ms) during disruptions. Disruption deposited energies on future high-power tokamaks may be well in excess of 20 MJ/m2 Design of plasma facing components (PFCs) for such severe environments requires considerable advancements in materials development, armor tile bonding to actively cooled substrates, heat transfer, and many other areas of engineering concern. Considerable improvements in PFC performance, reliability and lifetime can also be accomplished through improved understanding and control of the edge plasma boundary layer. This paper covers both engineering and edge plasma physics issues that must be addressed in the development of reliable PFCs for ITER. Several specific examples are addressed since a complete treatment of all critical development issues would be lengthy. Topics covered include impurity generation and transport in the boundary layer plasma, materials response to intense pulsed disruption heat loads, runaway electron generation during disruptions, high heat flux performance and PFC fabrication issues. These topics are illustrative examples of the variety of complex issues that must be addressed in the development and design of PFCs.