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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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.
Technical Session|Panel|Sponsored by DESD|Cosponsored by OPD
Wednesday, June 16, 2021|12:00–1:45PM EDT
Session Chairs:
Gail H. Marcus (Nuclear Power Technology and Policy)
Steven M. Mirsky (NuScale)
Session Organizer:
Staff Producer:
Susan Gallier (ANS)
Built in 1959, NS Savannah (NSS) was the world's first nuclear powered merchant ship and served as a signature element of President Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace program. While in service, NSS demonstrated the peaceful use of atomic power as well as the feasibility of nuclear-powered merchant vessels. The vessel was retired from active service in 1970 and registered as a National Historic Landmark in 1991. NSS is currently part of MARAD's National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) in retention status. This session will examine the history of other civilian nuclear-powered vessels including the Sturgis, the Otto Hahn and the Russian non-naval vessels.
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