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Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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
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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.
E. R. Gilbert, R. P. Allen, D. L. Baldwin, R. D. Bell, J. L. Brimhall, R. G. Clemmer, S. C. Marschman, M. A. McKinnon, R. E. Page, H. G. Powers, S. G. Chalk
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 2 | March 1992 | Pages 739-744
Material Properties | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29836
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To verify the performance of permeation-resistant cladding for tritium targets designed for a New Production Reactor Light-Water Reactor, a tritium test facility was designed, developed, fabricated, and certified. Testing is ongoing to verify the performance of reference-designed targets. Accurate measurements were taken of tritium permeating from barrier-coated cladding specimens immersed in high-temperature autoclaves configured to simulate reactor coolant conditions. The tritium test pressure is controlled by heating a zirconium-alloy getter, previously charged with tritium, to a temperature that corresponds to a specified test pressure. The apparatus for testing deuterium permeation was developed to calibrate nondestructive testing procedures for evaluating barrier quality and to screen defective industrial cladding. These permeation testing facilities perform parametric tests to evaluate the sensitivity of permeation to temperature, time, pressure, fabrication variables, barrier disparities, corrosion, and other factors. The experimental activities characterize the performance and material properties of target rod components as well as validate new nondestructive examination methods that measure target rod quality. The target rod components are 1) barrier-coated stainless steel cladding, 2) lithium aluminate pellets, 3) nickel-plated Zircaloy-4 getters, and 4) zirconium liners. In addition, data generated from statistical testing provide increased confidence in current analytical models that predict target rod performance during both steady state and calculated transient conditions. The test results indicate that the tritium release from a full core of NPR-LWR targets will satisfy design requirements for release of no more than 20,000 Ci of tritium to the reactor coolant, even with four failed target rods that release up to 50% of their inventory.