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Division Spotlight
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
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May 2025
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.
T. Hino, J. Miwa, T. Mitsuyasu, Y. Ishii, M. Ohtsuka, K. Moriya, K. Shirvan, V. Seker, A. Hall, T. Downar, P. M. Gorman, M. Fratoni, E. Greenspan
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 187 | Number 3 | September 2017 | Pages 213-239
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2017.1312941
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The resource-renewable boiling water reactor (RBWR) is an innovative boiling water reactor that has the capability to breed or to burn transuranium elements (TRUs). Core characteristics of the RBWR of the TRU burner type were evaluated by two different core analysis methods. The RBWR core features an axially heterogeneous configuration, which consists of an internal blanket region between two seed regions, to achieve the TRU multi-recycling capability while maintaining a negative void reactivity coefficient. Axial power distribution of the TRU burner core tends to be more heterogeneous because the isotopic composition ratio of fertile TRUs to fissile TRUs becomes larger in the TRU burner–type core than in the breeder-type core and the seed regions need to be axially shorter than that of the breeder-type core. Thus core analysis of the TRU burner–type core is more challenging. A conventional diffusion calculation using nuclear constants prepared by two-dimensional lattice calculations was performed by Hitachi, while the calculation using nuclear constants prepared by three-dimensional calculations and axial discontinuity factors was performed by the University of Michigan to provide a more sophisticated treatment of the axial heterogeneity. Both calculations predicted similar axial power distributions except in the region near the boundary between fuel and plenum. Both calculations also predicted negative void reactivity coefficients throughout the operating cycle. Safety analysis was performed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the all-pump trip accident, which was identified as the limiting accident for the RBWR design. The analysis showed the peak cladding temperature remains below the safety limit. Detailed fuel cycle analysis by University of California, Berkeley, showed that per electrical power generated, the RBWR is capable of incinerating TRUs at about twice the rate at which they are produced in typical pressurized water reactors.