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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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.
D. Rozzia, G. Bonny, S. Billiet, B. Boer, M. Verwerft
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 2 | February 2024 | Pages 324-353
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2229186
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents the fuel performance simulation of two past experiments that are concerned with partial fuel melting. The activity is conducted in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency Power to Melt and Maneuverability (P2M) – Second Framework for Irradiation Experiments (FIDES-II) Joint ExpErimental Programme (JEEP). The xM3 transient experiment involved uranium oxide (UO2) fuel with a ZIRconium Low Oxidation alloy (ZIRLO) cladding base irradiated up to 27 MWd/kg U, followed a ramp test up to 70 kW/m leading to inception of melting. The High Burnup Chemistry Experiment 4 (HBC4) transient was performed according to a rapid power ramp, on a UO2 fuel with a Zircaloy-4 cladding base irradiated up to 47 MWd/kg U. The linear heat generation rate reached 66.3 kW/m at the end of the transient leading to inception of melting and rodlet failure. Three main cases per each of the two transients were modeled with the TRANSURANUS code version 2015 in agreement with the benchmark specifications to consider uncertainty on the power during the ramping phases. The paper presents and discusses the analysis of these tests and provides an in-depth sensitivity analysis to assess the capabilities of the code as well as the effect of user choices in simulating the base irradiation and the inception of melting in light water reactor fuel rods.
