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Division Spotlight
Mathematics & Computation
Division members promote the advancement of mathematical and computational methods for solving problems arising in all disciplines encompassed by the Society. They place particular emphasis on numerical techniques for efficient computer applications to aid in the dissemination, integration, and proper use of computer codes, including preparation of computational benchmark and development of standards for computing practices, and to encourage the development on new computer codes and broaden their use.
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.
Download the Report
Nuclear technology may have come a long way in the past 60-70 years, but new ideas have the possibility of moving at a much faster pace in today's advanced scientific environment.
Those who work in nuclear professions recognize the many benefits that nuclear technologies currently bring to our lives, and are driven to continuously make them better and to take them in new and exciting directions.
That is what the Nuclear Grand Challenges project is about.
American Nuclear Society members were involved in the selection process, because they are the specialists best positioned to know the current landscape and potential for the future of nuclear technologies. The project was launched at the ANS 2016 Winter Meeting with a roundtable brainstorming session with more than 125 nuclear professionals. ANS members, as well as the public, were then invited to submit their ideas.
Nearly 300 proposed challenges were analyzed and vetted by the appropriate ANS Professional Division(s). Each division selected one to three Division Grand Challenges. A selection committee including all ANS division chairs and board of directors members identified nine ANS Nuclear Grand Challenges that were announced at the ANS Annual Meeting on June 12, 2017, in San Francisco, Calif.
The results are the ANS Nuclear Grand Challenges below. These will provide an opportunity for ANS members and other interested parties to drive conversations about the issues needed to be addressed to advance the benefits of nuclear science and technology for future generations.
Last modified June 12, 2017, 2:20pm CDT
