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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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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May 2025
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.
K. L. Davis, D. L. Knudson, J. L. Rempe, J. C. Crepeau, S. Solstad
Nuclear Technology | Volume 191 | Number 1 | July 2015 | Pages 92-105
Technical Note | Materials for Nuclear Systems | doi.org/10.13182/NT14-60
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
New materials are being considered for fuel, cladding, and structures in next-generation and existing nuclear reactors. Such materials can undergo significant dimensional and physical changes during high-temperature irradiation. To accurately predict these changes, real-time data must be obtained under prototypic irradiation conditions for model development and validation. To provide these data, programs such as the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) National Scientific Users Facility (NSUF) have funded researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) High Temperature Test Laboratory (HTTL) to develop several instrumented test rigs to obtain data in real time from specimens irradiated in well-controlled pressurized water reactor (PWR) coolant conditions in ATR. This technical note reports the status of INL efforts to develop and evaluate prototype test rigs that rely on linear variable differential transformers (LVDTs) in laboratory settings. Although similar LVDT-based test rigs have been deployed in lower-flux materials testing reactors (MTRs), this effort is unique because it relies on robust LVDTs that can withstand higher temperatures and higher fluxes than often found in other MTR irradiations. Specifically, the test rigs are designed for detecting changes in the length and diameter of specimens irradiated in ATR PWR loops. Once implemented, these test rigs will provide ATR users with unique capabilities that are sorely needed to obtain measurements, such as elongation caused by thermal expansion and/or creep loading, and diameter changes associated with fuel and cladding swelling, pellet-cladding interaction, and crud buildup.