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Division Spotlight
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.
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.
H. Huang, B. A. Vermillion, L. C. Brown, G. E. Besenbruch, D. T. Goodin, R. W. Stemke, R. B. Stephens
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 1 | January 2005 | Pages 46-55
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A597
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Of the building blocks of an inertial fusion energy (IFE) plant, target fabrication remains a significant credibility issue. For this reason, an extensive parametric study has been conducted on mass production of glow discharge polymer (GDP) shells in a vertical fluidized bed. Trans-2-butene was used as a reactant gas with hydrogen as a diluting and etching agent. Coating rates in the range of 1 to 2 m/h were demonstrated on batches of 30 shells where National Ignition Facility-quality surfaces were obtained for 3- to 5-m-thick coatings. Thick coatings up to 325 m were also demonstrated that are visually transparent, without void and stress fracture. A phenomenological understanding of the GDP growth mechanisms to guide future experiments was further established. Specifically, gas-phase precipitation and high-impact collisions were identified as the main surface-roughening mechanisms. The former produces dense cauliflower-like surface patterns that can be eliminated by adjusting the gas flow rates and the flow ratio. The latter produces isolated domelike surface defects that can be reduced by introducing concerted motion between the shells. By converting from a vertical to a horizontal configuration, fully transparent coatings were obtained on 350 shells. Collisions in a fluidized bed have been identified as the limiting factor in meeting IFE specifications, and a related-rotary kiln technique is recommended for scale-up.