ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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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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.
E. R. Gilbert, B. A. Chin
Nuclear Technology | Volume 52 | Number 2 | February 1981 | Pages 273-283
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT81-A32670
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A nationally based program with the U.S. Department of Energy on in-reactor creep studies has produced experimental results that are being used for design and performance analyses of fast breeder reactors. These programs enabled the development of experimental methods that have produced copious in-reactor creep data over a broad range of conditions that include neutron fluences up to 1 X 1023 n/cm2 and temperatures as high as 750°C. These tests have revealed that contrary to guidance provided by post-irradiation creep tests, deformation during neutron irradiation does not impair the stress-to-rupture properties. Temperature- and stress-change experiments have been conducted to simulate the effects of nonsteady-state conditions existing in an operating reactor. The results show that the irradiation creep behavior is rather insensitive to stress and temperature history. In contrast, swelling is highly sensitive to temperature reductions that occur during irradiation. These studies have been conducted primarily on AISI Type 316 stainless steel although a broad base has been initiated on other alloys. The impact of these results is that irradiation creep at high temperature and high neutron fluences is larger than anticipated from early low fluence and low temperature data on AISI Type 316 stainless steel. Consequently, there is a high level of interest in advanced alloys that are more resistant to irradiation creep than is the AISI Type 316 stainless steel. Advanced alloys of the precipitation-strengthened nickel base class as well as low nickel ferritic steels are being investigated as alternates to AISI Type 316 stainless steel for specific core applications. A diverse range in resistance to in-reactor creep has been found, with Inconel 706 providing very high resistance and PE16 providing an intermediate level of resistance.