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Division Spotlight
Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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.
International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference
Workshop
Sunday, November 13, 2022|9:00AM–12:00PM MST|Honeysuckle
UNF-ST&DARDS is being developed to provide the ability to perform automated analysis of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) storage, transportation, and disposal systems. UNF-ST&DARDS provides a database for storing and preserving SNF data and streamlines various analyses using the data from the database for time-dependent characterization of SNF and related systems (e.g., dry storage system). UNF-ST&DARDS allows for modelling the variation of cask payload burnup, enrichments, and cooling times through a flexible GUI. This tutorial will include 1) discussions on various data need for realistic SNF characterizations and demonstration of the data import processes in UNF-ST&DARDS, 2) assembly-specific, time-dependent depletion and decay analyses, 3) as-loaded (using actual cask loading maps) criticality and shielding analyses of currently loaded casks for storage, transportation, and disposal (over disposal time periods), 4) discussion of as-loaded analyses to support licensing/certification of dry SNF systems, 5) misload analysis methodology to support as-loaded criticality analysis, 6) design-basis criticality and shielding analyses using user-defined loading patterns and fuel assembly types, and 7) dry storage loading optimization using UNF-ST&DARDS. The tutorial/demonstration is open to all registered meeting attendees who signed up at the time of registration. Attendees have no requirements to watch the demonstration, however, an RSICC license for UNF-ST&DARDS and SCALE is necessary if they would like to follow along.
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