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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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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.
Alireza Haghighat, Maurice A. Robkin
Nuclear Technology | Volume 61 | Number 3 | June 1983 | Pages 503-513
Technical Paper | New Directions in Nuclear Energy with Emphasis on Fuel Cycles / Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT83-A33175
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The long-term reduction in potential hazard of geologically stored nuclear wastes achievable by partitioning and transmutation (PT) of the actinides discharged from a mixed-oxide (MOX)-fueled light water reactor coupled to a MOX-fueled liquid-metal fast breeder reactor (LMFBR) is considered for three PT cases:1. 32 cycles of PT with plutonium sent to the repository at every cycle2 .same as item 1 with plutonium sent to the LMFBR as fuel3. PT cycles continued indefinitely.Cross-section and isotope inventory data are taken from the literature for similar facilities and processes and converted to an effective cycle-by-cycle burnup pattern. The effect of PT on potential population hazard into the indefinite future is evaluated on the basis of activity leached from the repository, transported by groundwater, and ingested. The calculation is carried out with two different sets of losses of actinides from facilities, one of which includes very small uranium and plutonium losses. The short-term fatalities expected due to accidents and operational releases are increased up to 67%. The decrease in long-term potential hazard with PT is minimal with the standard loss fractions. In the small loss set, the loss of uranium (which dominates the long-term hazard) is assumed to be very small. The factor of 25 reduction observed in this case is reduced to a factor of 3 when uranium is deleted from the tally. With uranium deleted, both loss fraction sets give the same long-term hazard reduction with PT.