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Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
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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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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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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. Rief, H. Kschwendt
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1967 | Pages 395-418
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE67-A18401
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A detailed Monte Carlo analysis in one, two, and three dimensions and with different multigroup scattering kernels is presented for a number of actual reactor systems. Several variance reducing sampling techniques, which we believe to be unusual, are employed and, in addition to the prediction of reactivity, much emphasis is placed on generation time calculations with reference to the “life cycle” point of view. One of the main points of interest in the numerical results obtained is the comparison of the reactivity and time eigenvalues with those obtained from the equivalent SN and jN calculations. The excellent agreement with these two methods establishes the necessary confidence in the Monte Carlo procedure described here. As a further illustration of the method, it was thought to be of interest to compare the numerical results obtained from different scattering kernels (transport approximation, linear anisotropy, and exact anisotropy) with a view to assessing the influence of these different approximations on the reactivity, absorption, leakage, generation time, etc. Simultaneously, an examination of two different Monte Carlo sampling techniques is presented. To apply a physical test to the method, some highly enriched uranium spheres, some cylinders of extreme geometry reflected by a variety of materials, and some cylindrical annuli were analyzed and the results compared with experiments. In addition, some systems requiring the full use of the three-dimensional scope of the method are studied. The efficiency of the Monte Carlo procedure is finally illustrated by listing, for several calculations, the probable errors in the reactor eigenvalues and other parameters after 10 min of IBM-7090 computer time. This analysis proves that statistical methods can be used to carry out threedimensional assessments of reactor assemblies with sufficient accuracy without the expenditure of a prohibitive amount of computer time. Such a goal has not yet been achieved by the numerical or analytical methods which solve the neutron transport equation.
