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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.
Naphtali M. Mokgalapa, Tushar K. Ghosh, Sudarshan K. Loyalka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 186 | Number 1 | April 2014 | Pages 45-59
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-9
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In high-temperature gas reactors, graphite particle adhesion and resuspension from structural surfaces play a role in source term estimations. This paper describes measurements of the adhesion force between an irregular graphite cluster (henceforth called a graphite particle) and Hastelloy X samples having different surface conditions. An atomic force microscope (AFM) was used. The graphite particle was attached to the AFM probe and then brought directly into and out of contact with the surface in air; the adhesion force was obtained from the resultant force curve. The adhesion forces of the graphite particle with Hastelloy X (as received, polished, and different oxidations) and mica surfaces were determined. From the resulting adhesion forces, the work of adhesion W12 (energy per unit area) was calculated. Although the values of the measured pull-off (adhesion) forces were found to be of the same order of magnitude, they differed by surface condition depending where on the sample the adhesion force was measured. The theoretical value of the adhesion force was calculated using the theory of Johnson, Kendall, and Roberts. When compared to the values calcluated from this theory, the measured values were lower by a factor of 100 in some cases and 1000 in others. This difference may be due to the approximation of the irregular graphite cluster probe as a perfect graphite particle sphere and to not taking into consideration asperities on the surface of the particle probe. Additionally, covalent bonds may form between the surface elements and the graphite particle because of the applied load. In this paper, the effects of oxidation on the adhesion of graphite particles to the mica and Hastelloy X surfaces are also discussed.