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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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 Science and Engineering
June 2025
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.
Joseph B. Tipton, Jr., Arnold Lumsdaine, Charles Schaich, Gregory R. Hanson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 4 | November 2017 | Pages 616-622
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1350486
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The ITER Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH) system Transmission Lines (TL) require highly polished copper mirrors on miter bends (both 90° and 140°) to direct microwaves from their origin to the tokamak. This will result in substantial heat dissipation on the miter bends and mirrors and will require water cooling in order to achieve long pulse operation. Analysis and optimization of the cooling design for the 140° miter bend assembly used ANSYS® Multiphysics™ software to develop and verify the fluid, thermal, and structural behavior of the mirror and miter bend assembly. Simulation model choices included a thermo-mechanical model of the mirror-only, a thermo-mechanical model of the miter bend assembly, and a thermo-mechanical model of the mirror with coolant. These analyses revealed an optimal solution that uses a major-axis cooling channel configuration for the 140° miter bend to meet the design criteria (e.g. structural stresses, mirror deflection, vacuum seal, coolant temperatures and pressures).