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Division Spotlight
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.
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.
A. Hemmendinger, C. E. Ragan, Jon M. Wallace
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 70 | Number 3 | June 1979 | Pages 274-280
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE79-A20148
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The specific production of tritium in a 600-mm-diam sphere of 6LiD irradiated by a central source of 14-MeV neutrons has been determined by measuring the tritium radioactivity in samples of 6LiH and 7LiH embedded in the sphere. Results are reported for several samples of each isotope at each of five different radii in the assembly. The entire process of decomposing the LiH samples, transferring the evolved gas into counters, and determining the decay rate was standardized by processing LiH samples irradiated by thermal neutrons, for which the 6Li(n,α) cross section is well known. These experiments provide benchmark measurements for checking calculations of neutron transport and tritium production in 6LiD. Tritium production in each ampule, as calculated using a three-dimensional Monte Carlo code, is in reasonable agreement with the experiment. For 7Li, discrepancies between calculation and experiment seem to be due to errors in the tritium production cross sections.
