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Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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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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. Martin Lopez (CEA/Grenoble INP), Y. Delannoy (Grenoble INP), F. Benoit, A. Muñoz Medina, R. Martinie (CEA)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 189-197
Electromagnetic Linear Induction Pumps (EMPs) are an important research subject in the development of Gen IV sodium-cooled fast reactors. Especially, in the framework of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission’s (CEA) R&D program on the Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration (ASTRID), the use of an EMP on the secondary loop has been proposed because of its safety advantages compared to mechanical pumps. For nuclear safety reasons, it is needed to know the behavior of an Annular Linear Induction Pump (ALIP) at off-design conditions. Consequently, the present article is focused on the study of stalling magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) phenomenon occurring at the transition from linear to non-linear branch of the performance curve at the maximum of pressure. This phenomenon is associated to a consequent decrease of the pump efficiency and takes place at large magnetic Reynolds number (Rm).
Using a theoretical analytical model, we calculated the coupled base flow and magnetic field. Results permit to identify the stalling appearance for values of the Global slip magnetic Reynolds number (Rms) greater than 1. However, the corresponding parameter associated to the occurrence of this phenomenon does not match with numerical 2D-axisymmetrical model and experimental results.
For this reason, we have developed a geometry-simplified numerical model closer to the theoretical one. This simplified model presents slight defects, compared to the theoretical one, for the Rms limit of stalling. Anyway, this result shows the importance of simulating the real geometry in order to obtain a good estimate of stalling appearance.
Finally, using this analysis we have implemented improvements for the 3D numerical model under development, whose principal goal is the study of MHD azimuthal instabilities in an ALIP.
