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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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.
Sung-Jae Yi, Jin-Hwa Yang, Byong Guk Jeon, Hwang Bae, Hyun-Sik Park, Kwang-Won Seul
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 10 | October 2024 | Pages 1888-1900
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2024.2304909
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A thermosiphon is a heat transfer device that utilizes the phase change of a liquid and has a single closed-loop shape in a gravity-dominant field. This can be expressed as a single-step thermosiphon because boiling and condensation occur once per cycle. In contrast, the multistep thermosiphon, introduced for the first time in the field of thermal engineering in this study, is a new heat transfer mechanism in which boiling and condensation occur several times per cycle in a single loop with multiple channels. The new mechanism has a superior heat transfer rate compared to the existing single-step thermosiphon, and the operating pressure of the loop can be lowered. However, as the heat transfer rate increases, the circulation flow in the channel tends to pulsate. This thermohydraulic characteristic was confirmed through theoretical and computational analyses of a two-step thermosiphon.
In this study, an improved concept of an asymmetric two-step thermosiphon was developed that can be applied to heat exchanger design by eliminating pulsating flow while maintaining the advantages of a two-step thermosiphon. The newly proposed heat transfer mechanism, termed the multistep thermosiphon, can be effectively used in the design of heat exchangers in industrial fields. In particular, if the asymmetric two-step thermosiphon is applied to the design of small nuclear reactor containments currently being developed in several countries, there are several advantages associated with the reduction of the containment volume and design pressure.