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
Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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.
L. A. Bernstein, A. N. Perevezentsev, L. A. Rivkis, A. A. Semenov, B. V. Safronov, A. P. Chukanov, E. V. Polianczyk, G. B. Manelis, S. V. Glazov, I. A. Revelsky, E. S. Brodsky, E. N. Kapinus
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 58 | Number 2 | October 2010 | Pages 625-657
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST10-A10889
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Maintenance of the Joint European Torus (JET) reactor led to generation of soft housekeeping materials contaminated with tritium and comprising various polymeric materials. Some of the wastes fall into the category of intermediate-level waste and require processing to reduce the volume and/or change the category to low-level waste. Plasma arc centrifuge (PAC) combustion and countercurrent regime of gasification have been studied as candidates for a future waste treatment facility for JET tritium-contaminated wastes. This study was carried out for JET wastes that did not contain tritium. Mass reduction factors from 8 to 46 and from 35 to 143 for countercurrent regime of gasification and PAC combustion, respectively, have been demonstrated to be dependent on waste composition. Volume reduction factors from 20 to 100 and from 95 to 400 for countercurrent regime of gasification and PAC combustion, respectively, have been also estimated to be dependent on waste composition. The wastes and combustion products including chlorine-containing combustion products have been characterized using standard procedures and various analytical procedures developed for this study. The formation of water as a secondary waste was estimated for countercurrent regime of gasification, which was important for the ultimate processing of tritium-contaminated wastes.
