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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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.
Aku Itälä, Markus Olin
Nuclear Technology | Volume 174 | Number 3 | June 2011 | Pages 342-352
Technical Paper | TOUGH2 Symposium / Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A11744
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Finnish spent nuclear fuel final disposal is planned to be based on the Kärnbränslesäkerhet 3-Vertical concept, which was originally planned for fractured crystalline bedrock. Within this concept, the role of the bentonite buffer is considered central. The aim of the study was to model the evolution of the final repository during the thermal phase (heat-generating period of spent fuel) when the bentonite is initially only partially saturated. There is an essential need to determine how temperature influences saturation and how both of these factors affect the chemistry of bentonite.In this study the Long-Term Test of Buffer Materials A2 parcel test at the Äspö hard rock laboratory in Sweden was modeled using TOUGHREACT code. The results focused on the following phenomena occurring in the bentonite: cation exchange, changes of bentonite pore water, mineral alterations, saturation, and pressure changes in bentonite buffer.The results show similarity with experimental data. However, the results are open to questions, and further study is needed to confirm the validity of the results. Differences between modeled and experimental results can be explained, for example, so that the experimental results are not from the fracture position as our one-dimensional model assumes.