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Division Spotlight
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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.
Emilio Tassoni, Ferruccio Gera
Nuclear Technology | Volume 72 | Number 1 | January 1986 | Pages 89-98
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT86-A33757
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Dissipation of the decay heat generated by high-level radioactive waste without producing unacceptable temperatures is one of the main problems related to geological disposal. An in situ heating experiment has been carried out in a clay quarry in the area of Monterotondo in order to discover the temperature field and the thermal effects caused by simulated high-level radioactive waste emplaced in an argillaceous rock. The experiment has been carried out by feeding an electric heater buried 6.4 m deep in a clay formation and by measuring temperature rises in boreholes drilled between 50 and 200 cm from the thermal source. The theoretical temperature rises in the clay, calculated by means of the Belgian MPGST code, have been compared with the experimental results. The temperature rises measured in the clay agree quite well with the theoretical values and show that the clay is a homogeneous medium. It was concluded that (a) the thermal conduction code seems sufficiently accurate to forecast the temperature rise caused in the clay by decay heat generation and (b) the thermal conductivity deduced by a comparison between experimental and theoretical temperature rises ranges between 0.015 and 0.017 W·cm−1°C−1. A laboratory-automated method, using needle and cylindrical probes, has also been designed to measure the thermal conductivity of clay samples. The probes are stainless steel cylinders, containing a heating resistance and a thermistor to measure the temperature rise. The method has been used to measure the thermal conductivity of clay samples coming from different Italian quarries. The thermal conductivity measured on the clay sedimentation plane is higher than that measured along the direction perpendicular to it. The clay thermal conductivity decreases as the water content rises.
