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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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.
Jean Boscary, Masanori Araki, Satoshi Suzuki, Koichiro Ezato, Masato Akiba
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 35 | Number 3 | May 1999 | Pages 289-296
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST99-A82
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The purpose of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) divertor, which is located at the bottom of the vacuum vessel, is to exhaust impurities and their power from the plasma. Divertor plates function to withstand and to remove a steady-state surface heat flux of 5 MW/m2 and a transient peak heat flux up to 20 MW/m2 for 10 s on the side that faces the plasma. These demanding heat loads require active cooling by a pressurized subcooled flow of water as well as the development of a high-performance cooling channel to avoid burnout. Previous experiments showed that a screw tube, which is a tube whose inner surface is machined like a nut, is an efficient means of removing high heat fluxes. New experiments have been carried out with a B 0205 M10 type of screw copper tube. The average inner diameter, i.e., at the midheight of the fin, is 10 mm, and the outer diameter is 14 mm. Different pitches have been investigated: 1.5, 1.25, 1, and 0.75 mm. Incident critical heat fluxes (ICHFs) between 25 and 47 MW/m2 have been reached for local pressures ranging from 0.9 to 2.2 MPa, inlet temperatures from 17 to 33°C, and axial velocities from 3.6 to 14 m/s. ICHF increases as axial velocity increases and depends slightly on local pressure. Experimental results confirm the potentialities of the screw tube as a reliable geometry for fusion cooling tubes.