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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 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.
Brian M. Patterson, John Sain, Richard Seugling, Miguel Santiago-Cordoba, Lynne Goodwin, John Oertel, Joseph Cowan, Christopher E. Hamilton, Nikolaus L. Cordes, Stuart A. Gammon, Theodore F. Baumann
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 2 | March 2018 | Pages 173-182
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1364923
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The measurement of the density of materials, especially ultralow-density foams, is difficult in that the measurement must be precise and localizable. The density of the material is often governed by its cellular (i.e., porous) structure, and many techniques exist to create that structure. Often, the cellular structure can vary from one location within the material to another, and when at low densities (i.e., densities lower than ~500 mg/cm3), it can vary due to shrinkage during syneresis, collapse under the weight of gravity, or gas/water vapor uptake. Quantifying this variation is important for a variety of applications, especially when used in plasma physics targets. Knowing the density and its variation across the sample is critical for experimental results to be accurately predicted by physics calculations and for modeling the results of the physics targets. The use of quasi-monochromatic radiography provides a means to image the two-dimensional (2-D) distribution of density variation within silica aerogel materials and to quantitatively measure that variation from sample to sample and lot to lot. For this study, two batches of silica aerogels with targeted densities of ~20 mg/cm3 were created, one batch at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the other batch at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Outlined here is a quasi-monochromatic radiography system using various X-ray sources coupled to a doubly curved crystal optic and X-ray charge-coupled device camera to image and characterize these materials. It was found that measuring the density both gravimetrically and using quasi-monochromatic radiography were statistically identical, although the two batches were found to be slightly higher than their targeted density due to shrinkage. The radiography system also provided 2-D information as to the aerogel quality, i.e., presence of voids, chipped material, or inclusions.