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Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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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.
D. Squarer, A. T. Pieczynski, L. E. Hochreiter
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 80 | Number 1 | January 1982 | Pages 2-13
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE82-A21399
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the worst hypothetical accident of a light water reactor (LWR), when all protection systems fail, the core could melt and be converted to a deep particulate bed as a result of molten-fuel-coolant interaction. The containment of such an accident depends on the coolability of the heat generating particulate bed. This paper summarizes published theoretical analyses that may predict bed dry out. In three of the analyses, the fluid flow in the heat generating particulate bed is considered to be laminar (Darcy's law), whereas in one study the fluid flow is solved for both the laminar and the turbulent flow regimes and is affected by capillary forces. The theoretical studies are compared with our recent data and with other recently published data covering a range of parameters that is expected in an LWR accident. An extension of the analysis and the experiments to a mixture of particle sizes is presented. The scaling of the dry out data to high pressures, which may be encountered during the course of an accident, is accomplished by multiplying the experimental bed dryout heat flux by the ratio of dry out flux at pressure to the dryout flux at atmospheric pressure. This ratio was calculated with the theoretical model, which agreed best with the experimental dryout data at atmospheric pressure. Based on the pressures and particle sizes expected in a pressurized water reactor core melt, it is concluded that stable (self-cooled) debris bed formation will occur if sufficient water is available.