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
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!
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. Peter B. Lyons retired from the Department of Energy on June 30, 2015. He now consults on several corporate and laboratory boards, as well as assisting several international groups. He was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy on April 14, 2011 after serving as Acting Assistant Secretary since November 2010. Dr. Lyons was appointed to his previous role as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Nuclear Energy in September 2009. Before joining DOE, Dr. Lyons was appointed by President Bush as a Commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, starting on January 25, 2005. He was subsequently nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. His NRC term ended on June 30, 2009.
Previously, Dr. Lyons served as Science Advisor to U.S. Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources from 1997 to 2005. From 1969 to 2003, Dr. Lyons worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory where he served on assignment to Senator Domenici and as Director for Industrial Partnerships, Deputy Associate Director for Energy and Environment, Deputy Associate Director for Defense Research and Applications and Group Leader for Fast Plasma Diagnostics. While at Los Alamos, he spent over a decade supporting nuclear test and laser fusion diagnostics.
Dr. Lyons has presented more than 400 papers or talks on a wide range of technical and policy topics in addition to testifying before the U.S. Congress on many occasions. He holds four patents related to fiber optics and plasma diagnostics and served as chairman of the NATO Nuclear Effects Task Group for five years. He received his doctorate in nuclear astrophysics from the California Institute of Technology in 1969 and earned his undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics from the University of Arizona in 1964. Dr. Lyons is a Fellow of both the American Nuclear Society and the American Physical Society; received the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal from the American Nuclear Society, the Henry DeWolf Smyth Nuclear Statesman Award from the American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Energy Institute, the Alvin M. Weinberg Medal from the American Nuclear Society, the James Landis Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Nuclear Infrastructure Council; and was elected to 16 years on the Los Alamos School Board.
Dr. Lyons grew up in Nevada and is now a resident of Golden, Colorado.
Last modified October 21, 2020, 10:52am EDT
