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Division Spotlight
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.
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.
Jacobus J. Hancke, John C. Barry, Gerrit T. Van Rooyen, Johan P. R. De Villiers
Nuclear Technology | Volume 180 | Number 2 | November 2012 | Pages 149-158
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A14630
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Coater parameters such as deposition temperature, volume percent of methyltrichlorosilane, and total gas flow were varied to study the effect on the ratio of defective TRISO nuclear fuel particles. The burn-leach test and other leach tests were performed to determine the defect ratio on samples of particles representing these variations. In the narrow ranges that were used, none of these parameters showed any correlation with the burn-leach result. However, a reduction in the density of the directly underlying carbon layer showed a marked increase in the defect ratio of particles. No trend could be observed when the density of the carbon layer was varied in the range of 1.8 to 2 g/cm3 , specified for TRISO particles. But, when the density was reduced to 1.7 and 1.6 g/cm3 , it was seldom possible to produce a batch that did not leach uranium, in spite of having a good quality SiC layer. This indicates that the integrity of the SiC layer is influenced by the quality of the underlying carbon layer. Mechanical damage is proposed as a mechanism responsible for the defective particles that are detected with the leach methods. This mechanism could be the reason for the variations in the leach results. Calculations and some examples show that all defects are not detected with the leach methods, probably because of the limited duration of these tests.
