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Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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
Colin Judge: Testing structural materials in Idaho’s newest hot cell facility
Idaho National Laboratory’s newest facility—the Sample Preparation Laboratory (SPL)—sits across the road from the Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF), which started operating in 1975. SPL will host the first new hot cells at INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) in 50 years, giving INL researchers and partners new flexibility to test the structural properties of irradiated materials fresh from the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) or from a partner’s facility.
Materials meant to withstand extreme conditions in fission or fusion power plants must be tested under similar conditions and pushed past their breaking points so performance and limitations can be understood and improved. Once irradiated, materials samples can be cut down to size in SPL and packaged for testing in other facilities at INL or other national laboratories, commercial labs, or universities. But they can also be subjected to extreme thermal or corrosive conditions and mechanical testing right in SPL, explains Colin Judge, who, as INL’s division director for nuclear materials performance, oversees SPL and other facilities at the MFC.
SPL won’t go “hot” until January 2026, but Judge spoke with NN staff writer Susan Gallier about its capabilities as his team was moving instruments into the new facility.
Dr. Andrew Kadak has been a member of the American Nuclear Society for 40 years. He is an ANS Fellow. Dr. Kadak is currently president of Kadak Associates, Inc., consulting on the decommissioning of nuclear plants and has served on safety review boards of various nuclear utilities. His diverse background includes nuclear plant operations, senior executive utility management, and teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Dr. Kadak has led license renewal of operating reactors, systematic evaluation of older plants to allow them to demonstrate compliance to new regulations, financial rate proceedings to assure adequate capital for safe operation, innovative fuel purchase agreements, high level nuclear waste disposal, and storage solutions. His technical background has allowed him to actively direct regulatory strategy dealing with reactor vessel embrittlement, safety analyses, boiling water reactor pipe replacements and how to manage aging nuclear plants.
Internationally, Dr. Kadak also served on the Senior Nuclear Safety Oversight Board of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Stations in Guangdong Province, China, and participated in an IAEA inspection of the Onagawa Nuclear Power Station after the Fukushima nuclear accident.
Dr. Kadak was formerly President and CEO of the Yankee Atomic Electric Company (YAEC) that operated the Yankee Atomic Nuclear Power station. During his tenure there, he held project management positions supporting stations such as Vermont Yankee, Maine Yankee, and Seabrook station. He was Vice President of the Nuclear Engineering Services before becoming President and CEO.
He has served as a board and executive committee member of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and the industry’s Advisory Committee on High Level Waste in addition to many nuclear industry committees such as Edison Electric Institute, the Electric Council of New England, and the Electric Power Research Institute. In 2005, Dr. Kadak was named by President Bush to serve on the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board for two four-year terms.
From 1998 to 2010, Dr. Kadak was a Professor of the Practice in the Nuclear Engineering Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research interests include the development of advanced reactors, in particular the high temperature pebble bed gas reactor, space nuclear power systems, improved technology neutral licensing standards for advanced reactors and operations and management issues of existing nuclear power plants.
He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Union College, an M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from Northeastern University (M.B.A.) and his Ph.D., in Nuclear Engineering - Reactor Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Read Nuclear News from July 1999 for more on Andrew.
Last modified October 19, 2018, 8:20am CDT
