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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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.
Blair M. Smith, Samim Anghaie
Nuclear Technology | Volume 145 | Number 3 | March 2004 | Pages 311-318
Technical Note | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3480
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The U.S. Department of Energy initiative Generation IV aim is to produce an entire nuclear energy production system with next-generation features for certification before 2030. A Generation IV-capable system must have superior sustainability, safety and reliability, and economic cost advantages in comparison with third generation light water reactors (LWRs). A gas core reactor (GCR) with magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) power converter and cascading power cycle forms the basis for a Generation IV concept that is expected to set the upper performance limits in sustainability and power conversion efficiency among all existing and proposed fission powered systems. A gaseous core reactor delivering thousands of megawatt fission power acts as the heat source for a high-temperature MHD power converter. A uranium tetrafluoride fuel mix, with ~95% mol fraction helium gas, provides a stable working fluid for the primary MHD Brayton cycle. The hot working fluid exiting a topping cycle MHD generator has sufficient heat to drive a conventional helium Brayton cycle with 35% thermal efficiency as well as a superheated steam Rankine cycle, with up to 40% efficiency, which recovers the waste heat from the intermediate Brayton cycle. A combined cycle efficiency of close to 70% can be achieved with only a modest MHD topping cycle efficiency. The high-temperature direct-energy conversion capability of an MHD dynamo combined with an already sophisticated steam-powered turbine industry knowledge base allows the cascading cycle design to achieve breakthrough first-law energy efficiencies previously unheard of in the nuclear power industry. Although simple in concept, the gas core reactor design has not achieved the state of technological maturity that established high-temperature gas-cooled reactors and high-temperature molten salt core reactors have pioneered. However, the GCR-MHD concept has considerable promise; for example, like molten salt reactors the fuel is continuously cycled, allowing high burnup, continuous burning of actinides, and hence greatly improved fuel utilization. The fuel inventory is two orders of magnitude lower than LWRs of comparable power output, and fissile plutonium production is likewise lower than in spent LWR fuel. Besides these features, specific GCR-MHD design challenges such as fission enhanced gas conductivity of the MHD partially ionized gas, GCR safety issues and related engineering problems are discussed.