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Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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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.
J. D. Sater, F. Espinosa-Loza, B. Kozioziemski, E. R. Mapoles, R. Dylla-Spears, J. W. Pipes, C. F. Walters
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 70 | Number 2 | August-September 2016 | Pages 191-195
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST15-204
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Capsule implosion experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) are driven with a carefully tailored laser pulse that delivers a sequence of shocks to the ablator and fuel. To ensure the shocks converge at the desired position, the shock strength and velocity are measured in experimental platforms referred to as keyhole targets. Shock measurements have been made on capsules completely filled with liquid deuterium for the solid deuterium tritide (D-T) layer campaigns. Modeling has been used to extend these results to form an estimate of the shock properties in solid D-T layers.
To verify and improve the surrogacy of the liquid-filled keyhole measurements, we have developed a technique to form a solid layer inside the keyhole capsule. The layer is typically uniform over a 400-μm-diameter area. This is sufficient to allow direct measurement of the shock velocity. This layering technique has been successfully applied to 13 experiments on the NIF. The technique may also be applicable to fast-igniter experiments since some proposed designs resemble keyhole targets. We discuss our method in detail and give representative results.