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
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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.
Ronald Stinson was the 33rd president of the American Nuclear Society (ANS). He joined the Society in 1962 at the same time joining the Operations and Power Division. He was an ANS Fellow, the highest grade of membership of the Society.
Born on April 30, 1931, and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, he graduated from Texas A&M in 1953 with a B.S. in range management before joining the Army. He and his wife moved to Darmstadt, Germany, where he was stationed. He applied for early release from the service, but was denied because his nuclear training and knowledge were in demand.
After his army commitment was met, he returned to Texas A&M, just as they were just introducing a nuclear program. He earned an M.S. in nuclear engineering in 1961, becoming one of the first two graduates to hold such a degree.
Stinson moved to Hanford, Washington landing a position working on the big eight reactors of the Hanford Project, which was run by General Electric (G.E.). Eventually he was transferred to the Vallecitos Lab in the San Francisco East Bay area as manager of nuclear safety. While at Vallecitos he spent much of his time occupied with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Later he took a promotion as project engineer of Dresden 2 & 3 and Quad Cities Nuclear Plants, and he was later recruited by Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in Herald, California to staff and build the Rancho Seco Nuclear Plant.
He left SMUD and became the director of projects at General Atomic (G.A.), but shortly after G.A. pulled out of the nuclear industry completely. Stinson and three of his industry colleagues formed a successful consulting business, Manage Analysis Company.
Ronald Calvin Stinson, Jr. passed away on June 27, 2019.
Read Nuclear News from July 1987 for more on Ronald.
Last modified January 20, 2021, 6:39am CST
