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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!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
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.
2021 ANS Winter Meeting and expo Plenary Session Speaker
Amir Vexler is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Orano USA—Orano’s operations in the United States providing commercial and federal customers with global expertise in nuclear materials management. Amir is also President of TN Americas, an Orano USA subsidiary.
Vexler oversees all five of Orano's business units in the U.S., including MCE for sales of uranium fuel, conversion and enrichment services; Orano Decommissioning Services for decommissioning nuclear energy facilities through its joint venture with NorthStar, named Accelerated Decommissioning Partners; TN Americas offering the full breadth of used nuclear fuel management (pool to pad, storage, transportation, and ISFSI management); Orano Med for the development of medical isotopes for targeted immunotherapy for fighting cancer; and Orano Federal Services offering the full complement of engineering and technology to solve some of the more complex nuclear material processing, conditioning and packaging for the U.S. Department of Energy.
With extensive international experience in the electric power industry, Amir’s career includes manufacturing, engineering services, commercial operations, and business development.
Prior to joining Orano in 2019, Amir’s leadership roles at Global Nuclear Fuel included chief executive officer, chairman of the board, chief operating officer, and vice president of Manufacturing/Supply Chain. Amir also held senior leadership positions with GE-Hitachi and the former GE Canada Nuclear Products.
Amir earned a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Wilfrid Laurier University.
Last modified November 18, 2021, 4:31pm EST
