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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.
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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.
Ronald E. Bell, Ronald E. Hatcher, Lawrence J. Lagin, Michio Okabayashi, Paul Sichta
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 2 | November 1996 | Pages 151-158
Technical Paper | Special Section: Plasma Control Issues for Tokamaks / Experimental Device | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A30747
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A digital plasma control system for the Princeton Beta Experiment Modification (PBX-M) is being prepared. The functions of the existing analog shape and position control subsystems will be assumed by the upgraded control system. Plasma profile control will be pursued by making use of the lower hybrid current drive and the ion Bernstein wave heating systems to modify the plasma current and pressure profiles. A framework for integrating these plasma control functions is presented. Existing profile diagnostics can, with some modification, provide the information necessary to feed back on the plasma profiles. The digital control hardware is commercially available. Four real-time processors, which can be programmed independently, reside on a single Versa Module Eurocard board with dedicated shared memory. The parallel programming capability allows the separation by function of the vertical position control, shaping control, and profile control, which have different characteristic time-scales.