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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.
Michael K. Meeks, Michael C. Baker, Riccardo Bonazza
Nuclear Technology | Volume 129 | Number 1 | January 2000 | Pages 69-81
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3046
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experiments were performed to determine the likelihood of a vapor explosion when injecting an inert gas (nitrogen) and a coolant (water) into a pool of molten metal (tin) in a large-scale chamber (~20 kg fuel). The injection flow rates of the water and nitrogen gas were the principal experimental variables, with average water flow rates up to 0.05 × 10-3 m3/s and gas flow rates ranging from 0.33 × 10-3 to 1.67 × 10-3 m3/s. Of 35 successful experiments, 11 resulted in an explosive interaction, as determined by audible signals, videotape, and accelerometer data. The main objective of the investigation was to determine the existence of a boundary between explosive and nonexplosive regions in the water-gas flow rate plane: Such a boundary was indeed identified and approximated by a straight line. Two experiments in which explosive interactions were obtained in the low water/gas flow regions after a relatively long time of coolant injection (~5 to 10 s) demonstrate the hitherto undervalued importance of the temporal variable.