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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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.
Technical Session
Monday, May 8, 2023|3:45–5:25PM MDT|Twin Falls Room
Session Chair:
Michael G. Houts
Session Organizer:
Alternate Chair:
Kurt Polzin
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Continuing Experimental Efforts for Simulating a Centrifugal Nuclear Thermal Rocket Engine
3:45–4:05PM MDT
Timothy Blackman (Univ. Alabama, Hunstville), Mitchell Schroll (Univ. Alabama, Hunstville), Robert Frederick (Univ. Alabama, Hunstville), L. Dale Thomas (Univ. Alabama, Hunstville)
Paper
Nuclear Thermal Propulsion for High Delta-V Science Missions
4:05–4:25PM MDT
Ethan Chaleff (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Craig Foulds (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Doug Greisen (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Michael Eades (Ultra Safe Nuclear)
Capabilities of Single Launch NTP and Chemical Spacecrafts for Cis-Lunar Tug Missions
4:25–4:45PM MDT
Christopher Harnack (Analytical Mechanics Assoc.), Emanuel Grella (Analytical Mechanics Assoc.), Sean Greenhalge (Analytical Mechanics Assoc.), Matthew Duchek (Analytical Mechanics Assoc.)
Chemical Vapor Deposition of ZrC Coatings for Space Nuclear Propulsion
4:45–5:05PM MDT
Eddie Lopez-Honorato (ORNL), Tyler Gerczak (ORNL), Ryan Heldt (ORNL), Peter Doyle (ORNL), Will Cureton (ORNL), Grant Helmreich (ORNL), John Hunn (ORNL)
Overview of the Reliability-Driven Design and Test Methodology Applied to Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Systems
5:05–5:25PM MDT
Samantha B. Rawlins (Univ. Alabama, Huntsville), L. Dale Thomas (Univ. Alabama, Huntsville)
DRACO On-Orbit Nuclear Thermal Rocket Experiment Preliminary Plans
5:25–5:45PM MDT
Tabitha Dodson (Defense Advanced Projects Agency), David Poston (LANL), Anthony Calomino (NASA Glenn Research Center), Jason Turpin (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)
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