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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.
Yasunori Iwai, Katsumi Sato, Toshihiko Yamanishi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 66 | Number 1 | July-August 2014 | Pages 214-220
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-725
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We have developed a honeycomb palladium catalyst to be used for the oxidation of tritiated hydrocarbons. Since the suitable loading rate of palladium deposited on the base material is a technical point, honeycomb-shaped palladium catalysts of three different loading rates—2, 5, and 10 g/L—were prepared to investigate the effect of loading rate of palladium on reaction rate in this study. Tritiated methane was selected as the typical hydrocarbon. A 12 m3 tank was prepared to prevent tritiated methane at tracer concentration fed to the catalytic reactor from fluctuating. The overall reaction rate constant for tritiated methane oxidation on the honeycomb palladium catalyst was determined with a flow-through system as a function of space velocity from 1000 to 6300 h−1, methane concentration in carrier from 0.004 to 100 ppm, and temperature of catalyst from 322 to 673 K. The honeycomb palladium catalyst without pretreatment for activation initially lowers the overall reaction rate constant at lower temperatures. However, the constant recovers steeply to the original value during the continuous combustion of tritiated methane. The loading rate of palladium deposited on the base material has little effect on reaction rate for tritiated methane combustion. The overall reaction rate constant is proportional to the space velocity. The overall reaction rate constant is independent on the methane concentration when it is less than 10 ppm.