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Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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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
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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.
D. Lousteau, K. Ioki, L. Bruno, A. Cardella, F. Elio, M. Hechler, T. Kodama, A. Lodato, D. Loesser, N. Miki, K. Mohri, R. Raffray, M. Yamada
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 384-389
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963644
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The ITER blanket system removes the surface heat flux from the plasma and from bulk heating by the neutrons, reduces the activity in the vacuum vessel (W) structural material to the level allowable to ensure vessel reweldability for the ITER fluence goal and, in combination with the vacuum vessel, protects the superconducting coils and other ex-vessel components from excessive nuclear heating and radiation damage. The blanket system contributes with its eddy currents to the passive stabilization of the plasma motion. It minimizes the effects of electromagnetic loads on the VV due to plasma disruptions, and provides a well defined load path to the VV for net vertical and horizontal loads arising from vertical displacement events (VDE's). The system is designed to allow the possibility of replacing the shield with a breeding blanket, within the same dimensional, maintenance, and coolant constraints, to provide the tritium to meet the technical objectives of the Enhanced Performance Phase.
The basic blanket system concept as well as the arrangement and function of its components is essentially unchanged from that established in 19951. However, as discussed in this paper, the design of each component has progressed significantly as a result of the detail design and technical analysis efforts of the last two years. The main components of the blanket system are:
• A back plate: a structure comprising a double wall shell that supports the first wall/shield modules and routes the coolant water to them.
• First wall/shield modules: comprising a plasma facing first wall (FW) section, and a shielding (or later breeding) section. Primary wall and baffle modules are distinguishable by the function of their FW.
• Limiters: define the plasma boundary during plasma start-up and shutdown and are located in equatorial ports.
• Flexible connectors, electrical straps, and branch pipes: the remote handling compatible structural, electrical, and cooling connections between the modules and back plate.
• Filler shields: shielding permanently mounted to the back plate in the triangular gaps between FW/shield modules.
The system will use austenitic stainless steel 316L(N)-IG (ITER Grade) as the primary structural material cooled by water with inlet conditions of 3.8 MPa and 140°C. The plasma facing surface of the FW will be beryllium except the lower region of the baffles, where tungsten is used. The electrical straps and heat sink layer in the FW will be copper alloy. A titanium alloy is the prime candidate material for the flexible connectors.