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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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.
Jan Prij
Nuclear Technology | Volume 80 | Number 3 | March 1988 | Pages 462-475
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34070
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In a salt dome with a repository for high-level radioactive and heat-generating waste, thermal stresses develop. These stresses can influence the isolation capability of the salt dome if these stresses can initiate cracks or introduce movements along existing closed flaws. The influence of the thermomechanical properties of the rock salt and the surrounding rocks on the thermal stresses and the surface rise is discussed. This discussion is based on a number of finite element creep analyses of a homogeneous cylindrical salt dome. The parameters, varied in the analyses, are constants in the thermomechanical constitutive behavior of salt and rocks, and furthermore the thermal loading has been varied. It is shown that variations in the creep properties, which result in differences in creep strain rate of a factor of 100, have only a very limited influence on the thermal stresses and the surface rise. Of more importance is the elastic stiffness of the materials. In all creep analyses the thermal stresses in the salt are compressive and the shear stresses remain below 2 MPa. The results are evaluated using an analytical treatment. Based on this evaluation, it is shown that the observed trends in the numerical results have a more general character and are not strictly limited to the geometry chosen. It is concluded that the thermal stresses in the salt formation are not strongly dependent on the creep properties of the rock salt.