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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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. Suyambazhahan, T. Sundararajan, Sarit K. Das
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 3 | March 2023 | Pages 413-427
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2116380
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Thermal striping is associated with random fluctuations of temperature that occur at the nonisothermal jet stream interface or across thermally stratified fluid layers due to the high heat transfer coefficient of liquid sodium flow. The temperature fluctuations in the jet mixing or stratified layer regions are transmitted to the adjoining structures after minimal attenuation in a Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR). In turn, the adjoining structure may experience high cycle fatigue and catastrophic failure caused by crack propagation. Investigations have been carried out in detail numerically, and frequency and amplitude of temperature fluctuations in 500-MW(electric) pool-type fast reactor [Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR)] structures for practical applications have been observed. The investigations consist of numerical simulations at two levels. First, a published benchmark experiment is analyzed, and then, a suitable computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is identified for simulating the thermal striping phenomenon numerically. After that, detailed flow and temperature fluctuations are predicted in the reactor structures by analysis carried out based on the CFD model. The values of the temperature fluctuations predicted are found to be within acceptable limits, as required by structural mechanics considerations in the study.