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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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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Feb 2025
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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.
20th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-20)
With more than 30 years of experience in both academia and industrial research, Dr. Yang is a recognized expert in reactor thermal-hydraulics and nuclear safety, advanced fuel design and qualification, rod bundle CHF and multiphase flow measurements, subchannel analysis, CFD simulation, acoustic wave propagation, online Real-Time Transient Modeling (RTTM), and leak detection in multiphase flow pipelines. Dr. Yang began serving as Director at Columbia University’s Heat Transfer Research Facility (CU-HTRF) from 1993 to 2002. He served as senior exclusive advisor for Westinghouse/ABB/Toshiba group from 2002 to 2012. From 2012 to 2017, Dr. Yang was appointed as a professor and the Dean of the School of Nuclear Science and Technology at Xian Jiaotong University (XJTU) in China. Dr. Yang also served as the Chief Scientist of CGN, China (2012 to 2018). During his professional career he has provided technical advice to various industrial, government, and academic institutions, including Aramco (Saudi), CNNC, CNPC, Ecopetrol, INER (Taiwan), KNFC (Korea), Kurchatov Institute (Russia), Mitsubishi (Japan), NPIC (China), Petrobras (Brazil), Shell (Nigeria), SINOPEC, Taiwan Power, USDOE, Westinghouse. He is the Chief Scientist and Co-Founder (2019) of Delta Energy Group in New York (DEGNY) and Qingdao (DEQD). He also serves as the director of DEQD Institute for Advanced Research in Multiphase Flow and Energy Transfer (DiAME). With over 300 publications and patents, Dr. Yang has served as the Chief Guest Editor for NED, NSE, NT, STNI, and Kerntechnik, and has been serving in the Editorial Board of NED since 2015. As the TPC Chair, Dr. Yang successfully organized the 1st and 2nd International Seminar on Subchannel Analysis-CHF and CFD (ISACC) in 2013 and 2015 respectively. In 2018, as the TPC Co-Chair, he helped to expand ISACC to IS-ReCTHA to include various topics on reactor core thermalhydraulics. In 2017, as TPC Chair, Dr. Yang successfully organized NURETH-17 with over 800 papers and 1,000 participants. Dr. Yang also organized/co-organized over 30 other international conferences and workshops, and he was the invited keynote speaker for several international conferences. In 2022, he was the General Co-Chair of NUTHOS-13 and Steer Committee Co-Chair for NURETH-19. Currently, he also serves as the General Co-Chair for three different international conferences: NURETH-20 (2023, Washington DC), NUTHOS-14 (2024, Vancouver), and ATH-2024 (Orlando, FL).
Dr. Yang was awarded NURETH Fellow (2019), the Excellent in Review Award (2021), and the highest technical achievement award from ANS THD, TAA (2022). He is the current Chair of ANS-THD (2022-2023).
Last modified March 27, 2023, 11:38am EDT
