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Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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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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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.
Paul P.H. Wilson, H. Tsige-Tamirat, Hesham Y. Khater, Douglass L. Henderson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 784-788
Fusion Blanket and Shield Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963709
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
ALARA [Analytic and Laplacian Adaptive Radioactivity Analysis] v1.0,1,2 a new activation code released in January 1998 and developed specifically for the analysis of radioactivity in fusion energy systems, has been validated by comparison to other commonly used activation codes, FISPACT-973 and DKR-Pulsar 2.04 using the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] Fusion Evaluated Nuclear Data Library [FENDL] Calculational Activation Benchmark.5 The solutions to the benchmark problem for both steady-state and pulsed operation have been calculated with all three programs on the same IBM RS/6000 workstation. In addition to comparing the total activity in each of the 44 non-void zones and the isotopic contributions to the activity at specific spatial points, the required computing time has been compared. For the steady state problem, agreement between ALARA and FISPACT-97 for the total activity was within 2.5% in all zones at all cooling times, and within 0.5% in most zones. For both the steady state and pulsed problem, agreement between ALARA and DKR-Pulsar 2.0 was within 1% in all zones and at all cooling times where tritium inventories were not significant. The agreement between ALARA and FISPACT-97 for the individual isotopic inventories in the stainless steel first wall back-plate were within 1% for all dominant isotopes at all cooling times, while the DKR-Pulsar 2.0 results showed some significant discrepancies. The processing time for ALARA is 2/3 of that for DKR-Pulsar 2.0 and less than 1/5 of that for FISPACT-97. This validation exercise proves that ALARA is an accurate and fast computational tool for the calculation of induced activity in fusion power systems.
