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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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2025
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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.
Advanced Reactor Safety (ARS) SPeaker
Dennis is a Consulting Engineer in GE Hitachi (GEH) Nuclear Energy, with over 42 years of Risk and Safety Analysis experience and 18 years at GEH. He technically oversees the PRAs for the BWRX-300, Versatile Test Reactor (VTR), and Natrium Reactors, and was the Technical Lead for the UK ABWR and PRISM PRAs. Prior to working for GEH, Dennis worked for 10 years as a nuclear utility PRA Engineer (Duke and San Onofre) and 14 years as a contractor/consultant. Dennis has authored or co-authored more than 150 publications, including the recently issued IAEA Safety Report 96 on Multi-unit PRA, and is currently supporting the development of an IAEA TECDOC on Multi-Hazard Assessments.
Dennis is being inducted into 2024 class of the National Academy of Engineering. Dennis is the ANS-Chairman of the ANS/ASME Joint Committee on Nuclear Risk Management (JCNRM), is a member of the ANS Standards Board, and has supported PRA standard development since 1999. Dennis was awarded the ANS Theos “Tommy” Thompson award for outstanding contributions to the field of nuclear reactor safety, October 2020, and is an ANS Fellow. Dennis received his MS and BS in Nuclear Engineering from University of Florida.
Last modified April 2, 2024, 6:03am PDT
