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Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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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
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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.
Harold N. Barr, Fred Hittman, Robert D. Brown, Frank W. Clinard, Jr., Manuel R. Lopez, Horace Martinez, Tobias J. Romero, Jay H. Cook
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 17 | Number 3 | May 1990 | Pages 385-390
Technical Paper | Materials Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST90-A29215
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Ceramic-to-metal seals were prepared by sputtering a titanium metallizing layer onto ceramic disks and then brazing to metal tubes. The ceramics used were alumina, MACOR, spinel, A ION, and a mixture of Al2O3 and Si3N4, Except for the MACOR, which was brazed to a titanium tube, the ceramics were brazed to niobium tubes. The seals were leak tested and then sent to Los Alamos National Laboratory, where they were irradiated using the spallation neutron source at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility. Following irradiation for ∼90 days to a fluence of 3.8 × 1023 n/m2, the samples were moved to hot cells and again leak tested. Only the MACOR samples showed any measurable leaks. One set of samples was then pressurized to 6.9 MPa (1000 psi) and subsequently leak tested. No leaks were found. Bursting the seals required hydrostatic pressures of at least 34 MPa (5000 psi). The high seal strength and few leaks indicate that ceramic-to-metal seals can resist radiation-induced degradation.