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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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.
S. T. Perkins
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 69 | Number 2 | February 1979 | Pages 147-155
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE79-A20606
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The neutron and fusion rate enhancement from in-flight reactions created by knock-ons from fission fragment slowing down in a compressed eqi-molar DT-plutonium plasma has been calculated. The neutron enhancement is worth up to a factor-of-2 reduction in critical mass. However, the neutron e-folding time is on the order of the system disassembly time, thereby restricting the multiplication of the neutron population to a factor of 2 or 3. It therefore appears more appropriate to discuss fission in a thermonuclear plasma in terms of a fusion chain reaction (fission fragment amplification of the fusion rate) rather than a fission chain reaction (neutron enhancement and criticality).
