ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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.
2020 ANS Virtual Winter Meeting Plenary Session Speaker
Dr. John G. Gilligan is Distinguished University Professor of Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University and Executive Associate Dean for the College of Engineering (Chief Operating Officer for the College). In addition, Dr. Gilligan serves as the first and only Director of the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) Integration Office for the US Department of Energy since 2008. The NEUP competitively awards contracts to universities to conduct peer-reviewed research in support of the development of commercial nuclear energy. In the most recent year, awards were made at the level of about $60M to over 50 universities and included equipment grants and support for university nuclear reactors and student scholarships and fellowships.
Professor Gilligan has authored over 120 peer reviewed publications in areas such as high power density plasmas and launchers, plasma-material interactions, nuclear systems, nuclear fusion, computational transport methods and engineering education. He has chaired or co-chaired 17 Doctoral committees and many Master’s committees. Dr. Gilligan has edited and published the Nuclear Science and Engineering Education Sourcebook since 1986 on behalf of the American Nuclear Society and the US DOE, and has served on a number of external Boards of Directors including the American Society for Engineering Education, UT-Battelle (Oak Ridge National Lab), Battelle Energy Associates (Idaho National Lab), the National Institute for Aerospace (NIA), and the Research Triangle Institute-International (RTI). He was also the founding Education Director for the US-DOE Nuclear Modeling and Simulation Hub for the Design of Light Water Reactors (CASL). Dr. Gilligan currently serves on advisory boards for Purdue University and the Oak Ridge National Lab.
Professor Gilligan has served on the faculty at the University of Illinois-UC, and held research positions at Princeton University and Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Gilligan has held leadership posts in the American Nuclear Society and the American Society of Engineering Education. He has been awarded the Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award and the 2017 ANS Arthur Holly Compton Award. Dr. Gilligan has given numerous invited lectures at universities and conferences.
Professor Gilligan is the former University Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies at NC State University. Previously Dr. Gilligan had served at the Dean level in the 11,000 student NCSU College of Engineering and also as NCSU Interim University Vice Chancellor for Extension and Engagement.
Professor Gilligan earned his B.S. in Engineering Sciences Engineering from Purdue University and his M.N.E and Ph.D. degrees in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Last modified October 20, 2020, 1:58pm EDT
