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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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.
R. K. Annabattula, M. Kolb, Y. Gan, R. Rolli, M. Kamlah
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 66 | Number 1 | July-August 2014 | Pages 136-141
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-737
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The crushing strength of the breeder material [lithium orthosilicate (Li4SiO4 or OSi)] in the form of pebbles to be used for EU solid breeder concept is investigated. The pebbles are fabricated using a melt-spray method, and hence, a size variation in the pebbles produced is expected. Knowledge of the mechanical integrity (crush strength) of the pebbles is important for a successful design of a breeder blanket. In this paper, we present the experimental results of the crush (failure) loads for spherical OSi pebbles of different diameters ranging from 250um to 800um. The ultimate failure load for each size shows a Weibull distribution. Furthermore, the mean crush load increases with increase in pebble diameter. It is also observed that the level of opacity of the pebble influences the crush load significantly. The experimental data presented in this paper and the associated analysis could possibly help us to develop a framework for simulating a crushable polydisperse pebble assembly using discrete element method.