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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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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March 2025
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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.
Decommissioning Environmental Science and Remote Technology 2021 Speaker
Since October 2021, Dr. Holahan has served as a Special Assistant in the Division of Rulemaking, Environmental and Financial Support. Prior to that she was the Director of the Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs in the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards where she led the management of the NRC's program for the regulation of Decommissioning, Low-Level Waste (LLW), and Uranium Recovery functional areas in close coordination with other Federal agencies, States, and Native American Tribal Governments, licensees, and the public. From October 2017 to August 2019, she was the Director of Rulemaking where she led the NRC’s core function of rulemaking for the reactor and materials programs. From October 2014 to October 2017, Dr. Holahan served as the Director of the Office of Enforcement. She has been with NRC since 1991 and has held a variety of staff and management positions in NMSS, the Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response, and and also served as a Technical Assistant to former Chairman Meserve.
Before joining NRC, Dr. Holahan worked as a Consultant Radiation Biologist and an Assistant Professor for the University of Texas’ Health Science Center, in San Antonio. She received her Ph.D. in Radiation Biology from Colorado State University. She earned a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and Master’s Degree in Biophysics from the University of Western Ontario.
Last modified November 10, 2021, 3:54pm EST
