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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. T. Ream, R. P. Varnes
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 13 | Number 4 | August 1962 | Pages 325-337
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE62-A26174
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It was planned to test full scale U02 test elements in the SRE core. Before doing this, an analysis of the transient behavior of the system in part and the whole was carried out. This analysis concerns the problem of determining transient thermal gradients in the Sodium Reactor Experiment core due to the inability of the after-scram braked flow of the sodium to properly cool the U02 fuel test elements. The analysis showed that the UO2 fuel elements could not be irradiated at the desired core position for maximum power density without exceeding the allowable transient thermal gradient limit. It was necessary to shift them to a position of 25% lower power. An experimental scram of the SRE verified these results for the 19-rod cluster type element. It was possible to concentrate the investigation on the region of the core containing the U02 test elements using the assumption that the steady-state relationship between core pressure drop and reactor flow was valid during flow coastdown. Distributed spatial parameter effects were approximated by a “lumped”-parameter model and were incorporated in sets of coupled finite difference equations which were then solved by use of a general purpose dc analogue computer. The transient flow in the test elements were computed from the SRE quasi-steady-state pressure drop as a function of time. The higher sodium outlet temperature in the U02 test element channels results in an elevation head greater than the elevation head in an SRE channel. This nonlinear buoyant force could not be neglected because it significantly increases the transient flow in the U02 fuel element and stabilizes the channel outlet temperature.