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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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.
W. R. Gambill, R. D. Bundy
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 18 | Number 1 | January 1964 | Pages 80-89
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A18142
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Twenty-nine experimental determinations of burnout heat flux were made with water flowing by natural circulation through electrically heated vertical tubes with and without internal twisted tapes and through rectangular cross sections of three aspect ratios. Heated lengths varied from 10 to 33 in., system pressure at the test-section flow exit from 14.7 to 26.3 lb/in.2abs, inlet subcooling from 36 to 170 F, and burnout heat flux from 13,000 to 218,500 Btu/h·ft2. Tests were made with both unrestricted and restricted return flow paths. Three correlations were developed for predicting natural-circulation burnout heat fluxes for such conditions. Two are useful for rapid estimation, but the third involves a more fundamental assessment of the coolant-mass velocity at burnout by a graphical matching of the heat flux which a given flow rate can sustain to the heat flux which will produce that flow rate. For all the data, this approach gave average and maximum deviations of 15% and 38%, respectively. It has been found that use of a slip ratio of unity is adequate for burnout prediction, and the reasons for this are discussed in detail. The small burnout penalty incurred by a substantial restriction of return flow path, experimentally observed, is in accord with the theoretical model.