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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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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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.
Abdelaziz Bouchikhi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 79 | Number 2 | February 2023 | Pages 168-178
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2136924
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A detailed study on the capacitively coupled radio-frequency (CCRF) argon discharge with metastable atom density and the effect pressure has been undertaken. Specifically, dielectric layers of borosilicate glass and alumina were introduced to the discharge to examine their influence on the discharge characteristics and to study the properties of the plasma. A model for the argon plasma based on the three moments of the Boltzmann equation together with the Poisson equation was used. The properties of the argon plasma presented are based on the averaged cycle, especially the electron temperature, the electric potential, and the metastable atom density. The electron temperature and the metastable atom density decreased in the presence of the dielectric layers, whereas the electric potential had a high value. Sensitivity analysis showed that the surface charge concentrations on the borosilicate glass and alumina dielectrics and the gap voltage increased with the increase of the relative permittivity; the plasma parameters also increased with increasing gap voltage.