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Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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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
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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.
Volker Heinzel, Rolf Huber, I. Schub, Gustav Schumacher
Nuclear Technology | Volume 71 | Number 1 | October 1985 | Pages 272-288
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A33726
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
During the loss-of-flow-driven transient overpower experiments at the CABRI experiments, molten steel may contact the test channel wall for ∼20 s. Afterward, the test channel is again cooled down. The test channel wall is made from niobium, which was chosen because of its high melting point and low thermal neutron absorption cross section. However, liquid steel dissolves niobium. Tests revealed a solubility of niobium in steel and the dynamics of the solution process, which requires protection against the attack of steel. Surface oxidation of the niobium tube can be excluded. Before forming an oxide, niobium takes up oxygen and embrittles. Therefore, carbides and nitrides of refractories were examined. Solubility of TiC in steel is limited but still too high for a thin coating. The solubility of TiN is negligible within the considered temperature region. However, TiN grows with a basaltic structure on niobium and the crevices between the columnar crystals provide channels through which the liquid steel penetrates and reaches the substratum. Furthermore, TiN adheres poorly on niobium. Consequently, a multilayer coating was suggested, with a NbC basic layer for a good adhesion on niobium and two TiN layers that are interrupted by an intermediate TiC layer. Melt tests with liquid steel on coated specimens demonstrated the protective function of such multicoatings. Mandatory specifications require a pore-free precipitation of the coating material, no surface fissures of the substratum, and a surface roughness of the substratum well below the coating thickness. The sublayer has to reach a thickness of at least 1 (μm except for the top TiN layer, which has to be a minimum of 2 μm in order to cover the TiC dentrides. A niobium wire was installed coaxially in the niobium tube during the coating procedure. The coprecipitated coating on the wire proved to image the coating on the tube, providing an appropriate, nondestructive quality and thickness control for the coating on the tubes. Test coatings revealed that coatings can be completed or amended in a second step, even if the tubes are removed intermediately from the coating furnace. During the CABRI experiments, the coatings are subjected to sodium. Appropriate tests show that sodium does not deteriorate the protective function of the suggested multicoating, provided that the oxygen concentration of the sodium is limited. The protection of a multilayer coating against a steel attack can be extended if Al2O3 is applied as a top layer.
