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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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.
Minoru Yamada, Ikuo Kinoshita, Toshihide Torige, Michio Murase, Yoshitaka Yoshida, Hideo Nakamura
Nuclear Technology | Volume 200 | Number 2 | November 2017 | Pages 125-143
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1362940
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Application of the statistical safety evaluation method to the analysis for reflux cooling in the loss of residual heat removal system (RHR) event during mid-loop operation was conducted with RELAP5/MOD3.2 as the best-estimate code. The evaluation parameters for this event are the reactor coolant system (RCS) pressure and reactor vessel (RV) water level. A phenomena identification and ranking table was developed previously to identify important phenomena that have a large influence on the evaluation parameters. The uncertainties of the analytical models which are related to the important phenomena were quantified to use as input for the statistical analysis. Actual plant sensitivity analyses were carried out to confirm the influence of the uncertainty which was quantified. Validation analysis of the RELAP5/MOD3.2 code was carried out for the reflux cooling test conducted with the ROSA-IV Large-Scale Test Facility to confirm that the experimental RCS pressure results were within the range of the uncertainty of the analytical models. A statistical analysis for 93 cases was carried out for a four-loop plant to evaluate the RV water level in the steady state and the maximum RCS pressure with 95% cumulative probability and 95% confidence. As a result, it was confirmed that reflux cooling using two cooling steam generators was successful.
