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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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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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.
R.C. Duckworth, J.G. Murphy, T.T. Utschig, M.L. Corradini, B.J. Merrill, R.L. Moore
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | March 2001 | Pages 976-980
Safety and Environment | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963368
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Vapor explosions are processes involving significant energy exchange between a hot and colder, more volatile liquid. This phenomenon can cause significant pressurization and may cause damage to structures. Historically, vapor explosions have been of interest in industrial processes with molten metals, and postulated accident scenarios involving molten fuel and water in current light water reactors. With the potential use of superconducting magnets in fusion designs, postulated accident scenarios involving water used to cool various structures and cryogenic materials (i.e., helium and nitrogen) required for magnet cooling have to be addressed. A rapid increase in pressure may be seen if liquid nitrogen or helium comes into contact with water. Because of significant temperature differences between the water and cryogenic materials, a rapid heat transfer event similar to a vapor explosion may be observed with the cryogen as the ‘coolant’ and the water as the ‘fuel’. Experiments to quantify this phenomenon were performed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This paper reviews these experiments and presents comparison analyses using the systems code, MELCOR. Experimental results showed that no large ‘shock’ pressures were observed. Thus, one can consider the ‘fuel-coolant’ interaction to be a boiling event controlled by ‘bulk thermodynamics’. We hope to benchmark the code and show its usefulness in determining potential critical issues involving these fusion systems.