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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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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Nuclear Technology
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.
C.P.C. Wong, L. Barlcon, M. Corradini, P. Fogarty, N. Ghoniem, S. Majumdar, S. Malang, R. Mattas, K. McCarthy, B. Merrill, J. Murphy, B. Nelson, R. Nygren, M. Sawan, S. Sharafat, I. Sviatoslavsky, S. Zinkle
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | March 2001 | Pages 815-822
Chamber Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963340
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper reports the results of the second phase evaluation of the EVOLVE W-alloy first wall and blanket design cooled by vaporizing lithium. For the transpiration-cooled first wall and blanket concept, we identify the need to further quantify the data of lithium superheat from W-alloy heated surface and bulk lithium slabs. For the boiling lithium blanket, we identify the need to elucidate the impacts of magnetic field on various stable-boiling regimes. We also find that this FW/blanket concept should have no problem in achieving adequate nuclear performance. With the addition of passive cooling loops, the concept has a strong possibility of achieving the safety requirement of not needing a public evacuation plan under the loss of power accident conditions. Even though the irradiated W-alloy may be subject to embrittlement, due to the relatively low system pressure of the design, it is shown to be able to withstand a large number of cracks. The fundamental issues of W-alloy properties under high neutron fluence irradiation and the components fabrication technique remain. Preliminary investigations of W-alloy fabrication and heat flux removal through SBIR programs have begun and the initial results arc encouraging. We recommend that the investigation of critical issues of the EVOLVE concept continue since this innovative design has a good possibility of showing a way to achieve high performance and passively safe designs that are necessary for the utilization of fusion power.