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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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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Fusion Science and Technology
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.
J. T. Gill, C. W. Pierce
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 2 | September 1985 | Pages 2217-2223
Blanket and Process Engineering | Proceedings of the Second National Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion and Isotopic Applications (Dayton, Ohio, April 30 to May 2, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A24612
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The prospects for using piezoelectrically-driven valves with elastomeric or thermoplastic poppets in tritium gas service have been investigated. A modeling study of a typical valve incorporating ethylene-propylene rubber (EPR) or high density polyethylene (HDPE) was performed. Equations were developed linking applied voltage; ceramic bimorph preloading force, elastic deflection modulus, and specific deflection force (per volt applied); polymer elastic modulus, thickness, seal surface area, and compression (to make seal); elastomer compression set; thermoplastic creep modulus; and flow gap between seat and polymer tip. It was determined that, while EPR should seal the valve orifice more easily, HDPE should produce a valve flow rate vs. voltage curve less variant with time and exposure. Both should, however, be sealable and allow flow curves perturbed by ≤10% of full scale after ∼100 days of exposure to 105 Pa (1 atm) T2 gas (equivalent to ∼7 × 107 rad = 7 × 105 Gy dosage). aMound is operated by Monsanto Research Corporation for the U. S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC04-76DP00053. bThe Princeton University Plasma Physics Laboratory is operated by the U. S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-76CH03073.
