ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Feb 2025
Jul 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
February 2025
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.
Melvin J. Feldman was the 21st President of the American Nuclear Society (ANS). He served on the ANS Board of Directors from 1973 to 1975. In 1971, he was made an ANS Fellow, and in 1990 he was honored with the Ray Goertz Award for his outstanding contributions to the advancement, application, and utilization of remote technology in the nuclear industry.
Feldman was born on January 6, 1926. He received a H.S. in metallurgical engineering in 1950 from Purdue University, and a master’s degree in metallurgy from the University of Tennessee in 1956.
His first job was with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) where he worked in the Solid State Division specializing in radiation damage to metals and fuels.
In 1956, he joined the Westinghouse Electric Corp and worked on radiation damaged studies of naval reactor fuels and construction and operation of the Expended Core Facility. In 1958 he was made supervisor of Metallurgy and Hot Cells at ECF in Idaho.
Feldman joined Argonne National Laboratory in 1960, where in 1967 he began work on the concept and configuration of the Hot Fuel Examination Facility/North and remained as a consultant to the project until 1972.
In 1973, Feldman was named Associate Director of Argonne-West Division, and remained there until 1975 when he joined the Oak Ridge National Laboratory as program manager of Engineering Systems for ORNL’s Fuel Recycle Division.
He retired in 1989, but continued to work as a consultant for the Australian government on remote handling processes.
Feldman passed away December 9, 1999.
Read Nuclear News from July 1975 for more on Mel Feldman.
Last modified November 24, 2020, 11:06am CST
