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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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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.
John D. Sheliak, James K. Hoffer, Larry R. Foreman, Evan R. Mapoles
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 1 | September 1996 | Pages 83-94
Technical Paper | ICF Target | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A30765
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A high-resolution optical imaging system and custom-designed image analysis software are used to make surface roughness measurements for deuterium-tritium (D-T) solid layers, equilibrated inside a 2-mm-inside-diameter re-entrant copper cylinder. Several experiments are performed that yield D-T layer thicknesses of between 75 and 139 µm, with equilibration temperatures between 17.4 and 18.8 K. A 1024- × 1024-pixel charge-coupled-device imaging camera, coupled with a Maksutov-Cassegrain long-range microscope, produces a 2.5-µm (single-pixel) image resolution. The error function fitting of the image analysis data produces submicron resolution of the layer interior surface finish. The length scale for the cylinder inner bore is just over 6 mm, and the final layer surface roughness for this length ranges from 3- to 1.7-µm root-mean-square. The feasibility is being explored of using these highly uniform and smooth D-T solid layers inside future targets for inertial confinement fusion reactors to produce surface finishes that will meet target design requirements for the National Ignition Facility. Techniques for improving the D-T solid layer surface finish are examined, limitations of the current D-T cell configuration and fuel mix are discussed, and cell configurations for future experiments are described.