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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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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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.
J. C. Robinson, D. N. Fry
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 42 | Number 3 | December 1970 | Pages 397-405
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE70-A21226
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Small pressure perturbations were introduced into the primary fuel pump bowl of the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) operating at its nominal power of 8 MW(th). The experimental neutron flux-to-pressure frequency response was then obtained from a cross-power and auto-power spectral density analysis of the resulting signals from a neutron sensitive ionization chamber and a pressure transducer. By comparing the frequency dependence of the experimental frequency response determined for the reactor operating at power with the frequency response determined from analysis of mathematical models, the selection of the more appropriate boundary condition set from a choice of two possible boundary condition sets was possible. Then, the analytical frequency response was fitted by the least-squares method to the experimental frequency response to obtain the void fraction in the molten salt fuel. A void fraction of 0.61 ± 0.04% was determined from the frequency response; this value compares favorably with a value of 0.6 ± 0.1% determined by other techniques. Conclusions from this work are that the analytical model leads to acceptable results for the neutron flux-to-pressure frequency response and that properly designed dynamic tests involving small reactivity perturbations (introduced by means other than rod motion) can be used to extract specific nuclear parameters for a nuclear system operation at power.