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
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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.
S. Nogami, J. Miyazaki, T. Nagasaka, A. Hasegawa, T. Muroga
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 1 | July 2011 | Pages 417-421
Materials Development & Plasma-Material Interactions | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12392
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The hardness distribution and the effect of post welding heat treatment (PWHT) at 600°C and 1000°C for 1 h and aging heat treatment at 600°C for 1000 h in the dissimilar-material electron beam weld (EBW) joint with pure-V and SUS316L austenitic stainless steel were investigated. The electron beam was positioned just on the butt joint (EB00), shifted by 0.2 mm (EB02) and 0.4 mm (EB04) on the pure-V side. The EBW joint was distinguished into the base metal of V (V-BM), weld metal (WM), interlayer at the edge of the WM of SUS316L side (IL) and base metal of SUS316L (SUS316L-BM). The IL was observed only in the EB02 and EB04 joints. The formation of macro-pore was observed in the EB04 joint. Much higher hardness was observed at the WM and IL of the as-welded EB00 and EB02 joints than the other regions of them. The hardness change in the WM was relatively small due to the PWHT at 600°C up to 1 h, whereas significant increment was observed due to the PWHT at 1000°C for 1 h regardless of the EB position. The hardness of the IL after the PWHT at 600°C was almost twice higher than that of the as-welded one, which showed slightly further increment at 1000°C. Rapid increment of the hardness due to the aging at 600°C for 1–10 h and slightly further increment of it due to the aging for 100–500 h occurred in the WM of the EB00 joint.
