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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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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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.
Decommissioning Environmental Science and Remote Technology 2021 Speaker
Betsy Forinash is the Director for the Infrastructure Management and Disposition Policy Office in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Environmental Management, whose mission is the cleanup of sites contaminated by the legacy of nuclear weapons development and production from the Manhattan Project and since. Her current role is focused on environmental remediation, facility decommissioning, and long-term stewardship at DOE sites.
At DOE, Betsy previously led programs related to radioactive waste management and disposal. Prior to DOE, she spent 15 years in regulatory and oversight programs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repositories, radioactive air emissions, contaminated site clean-up, naturally-occurring radioactive materials, and radiological emergency preparedness. She also worked for five years at the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, based in Paris, with international expert groups on strategic and technical aspects of radioactive waste disposal.
Betsy holds a BS degree from Duke University (go, Blue Devils!) and an MS from Northwestern University, both in civil engineering.
Last modified October 28, 2021, 2:32pm EDT
