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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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.
L. Jutier, C. Riffard, A. Santamarina, E. Guillou, G. Grassi, D. Lecarpentier, F. Lauvaud, A. Coulaud, M. Hampartzounian, M. Tardy, S. Kitsos
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 181 | Number 2 | October 2015 | Pages 105-136
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-51
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Burnup credit for used fuel assemblies, in particular, pressurized water reactor uranium oxide, has been a major focus of research in France for more than 30 years. As a result, a wealth of knowledge and experience has been gained. The first implementation of burnup credit in France used the “50-leastirradiated- cm” method approved by the French safety authority in the early 1980s. However, because of the continuous increase in fuel enrichment, the industry is interested in reducing the conservatisms of this method by taking into consideration more realistic hypotheses, such as the introduction of fission products and a nonuniform axial burnup profile. To address this concern, a working group, bringing together several French nuclear companies and institutions [AREVA, CEA (Commissariat a` l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives), EDF (Electricite´ de France), and IRSN (Institut de Radioprotection et de Suˆrete´ Nucle´aire)], was created in 1997. This paper presents the results of the working group’s discussions and studies on all the issues pertaining to the use of burnup credit. In addition, the practical experience of AREVA TN (a division of AREVA dealing with radioactive materials transport and storage throughout the entire nuclear fuel cycle) with transport casks, using input from these results, is described.