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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.
Luder Tibkin, Mahmoud El-Beshbeeshy, Riccardo Bonazza, Michael L. Corradini
Nuclear Technology | Volume 111 | Number 1 | July 1995 | Pages 92-104
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A35147
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Detonation wave theory was applied to the physical process of a vapor explosion. Initially, our experimental observations using hot water as the fuel and saturated refrigerant liquid as the coolant were analyzed with this technique. These tests are notable since peak explosion pressures were far below the critical pressure of the coolant. From the analysis, the volume fractions of the coolant vapor and the volume ratio of the two liquids prior to the explosion were estimated from the measured peak explosion pressures and associated explosion propagation velocities under the assumption that the process was steady and one-dimensional. Complete Hugoniot curves were constructed, and the detonation condition was initially determined under the assumption that flow velocity behind the shock was equal to the mixture sound speed. This assumption was checked with the tangency condition between the Rayleigh line and Hugoniot curve at the Chapman-Jouguet point, as well as the existence of a minimum in the entropy change across the shock wave. The point of minimum entropy showed good agreement with the graphical tangency point, but was slightly different than the sound speed criteria in pressure (<2%) with a larger difference in propagation speed (50%). This discrepancy between the three criteria becomes insignificant as the explosion pressure rises. This is demonstrated by examining a tin-water explosion experiment. This technique appears to be a useful tool to estimate initial conditions for subcritical vapor explosions.