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Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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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.
Bernd Grambow, R. S. Forsyth, Lars O. Werme, Jordi Bruno
Nuclear Technology | Volume 92 | Number 2 | November 1990 | Pages 204-213
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34471
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Observations on the mechanism of oxidation of UO2 in air and results from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy surface analyses of UO2 electrodes exposed to aqueous solutions show that the dissolving solid under oxic conditions is essentially U3O7 formed by oxygen diffusion on the UO2 surface. Saturation effects with respect to U3O7 can be of importance for the overall reaction rate if oxygen transport to the dissolving surface is limited. The release of soluble radionuclides in solid solution with the UO2 matrix appears to be limited by the mass transfer rates for the conversion of U3O7 to alteration products such as schoepite. The rates of 90Sr and 137Cs release decrease with the square root of time under uranium-saturated conditions. This time dependence may be explained by either grainboundary diffusion or by oxygen diffusion through the alteration product phase.