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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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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. Chauncey Starr was the 4th president of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and was a charter member. He also a recipient of the ANS awards: Walter H. Zinn Award in 1979 and the Henry D. Smyth Award in 1983. He was a Fellow of ANS.
Dr. Chauncey Starr was born on April 14, 1912. His first job after completing his doctorate was in 1935 at Harvard University as a research associate in the laboratory, where he worked on the thermal transport properties of metals at high pressure. From Harvard, Chauncey went on to a similar postgraduate position at the MIT Magnet Laboratory, where he worked on cryogenics and magnetic measurements.
In 1942, while at the Bureau of Ships heading a group of engineers working on electronic detection of mines, he was invited to join Ernest Lawrence’s staff at the University of California Radiation Laboratory. Dr. Starr was subsequently transferred to Oak Ridge to serve as Lawrence’s liaison and directed a group of several hundred engineers that made crucial improvements to the yields of the beta calutrons; by the spring of 1945 Oak Ridge had produced enough 235U to arm the Little Boy weapon used against Hiroshima.
After the war, Dr. Starr transferred to Clinton Laboratories at Oak Ridge to participate in the nuclear power reactor design efforts led by Eugene Wigner and Alvin Weinberg. In 1946 he joined North American Aviation, and in 1955 he formed and became president of a new division, Atomics International, to pursue commercialization of the generation of electricity from nuclear power. In collaboration with Walter Zinn at Argonne National Laboratory and the first president of ANS, Chauncey explored the peaceful application of atomic energy to the generation of electricity. In 1966 he left Atomics International to become dean of engineering at UCLA; six years later he founded the Electric Power Research Institute. Chauncey also made substantial contributions to the discipline of risk analysis while at UCLA and established an environmental division at EPRI.
For his accomplishments, Dr. Starr received the American Physical Society’s 2000 George E. Pake Prize and numerous other awards and recognition, including honorary degrees, membership in national and international academies, medals from heads of state, and fellow status in professional societies.
Dr. Starr earned an electrical engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1932 and a Ph.D. in physics in 1935.
Dr. Chauncey Starr passed away on April 17, 2007.
Last modified November 24, 2020, 10:28am CST
