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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.
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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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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.
Hisae Togashi, Kazuhisa Yuki, Hidetoshi Hashizume
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 3 | April 2005 | Pages 740-745
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Divertor and Plasma-Facing Components | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A774
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In a fusion reactor, almost 30% of fusion energy is deposited on plasma facing components. In the divertor region, it is, however, difficult to utilize this energy with conventional cooling techniques based on high velocity flow with highly subcooled cooling. From this viewpoint, the authors have been developing a cooling technique with metal porous media. In this study, in order to attain both the higher cooling performance and the acquisition of high density energy, high heat removal experiments are performed by using homogeneous and functionally graded porous media to estimate their fundamental heat transfer performances. From the experiments with the homogeneous porous media, it is clarified that the cooling performance is not always improved by using finer pore size media. The functionally graded porous media can reduce a pressure loss. Additionally, in case of the functionally graded porous media with the finer pore, the heat transfer coefficient is higher than that obtained in the homogeneous case. As for the optimal design, it is important to consider the degree of vapor development near a heated surface in the porous media and an effective discharge of vapor from the heated region.