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Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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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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.
T. D. Bohm, M. E. Sawan, B. Smith, P. P. H. Wilson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 2 | August 2011 | Pages 698-702
Nuclear Analysis & Experiments | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12466
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The ITER blanket modules (BM) are geometrically complex with many water coolant channels in a SS316 structure. Detailed mapping of nuclear heating, radiation damage, and helium production is an essential input to the design process. Previous high fidelity, high-resolution results calculated with the CAD based DAG-MCNP code revealed important heterogeneity effects on nuclear heating and helium production near steel/water interfaces. We carried out additional analysis for a simplified geometry to understand the reasons behind the observed peaking in the steel nuclear parameters at the interface with the water coolant. The results show that the peaking in nuclear heating is due to the softer neutron spectrum in the portion of steel adjacent to water which results in more gamma generation. Helium production peaking in steel adjacent to the water is due to the softer neutron spectrum which results in increased helium production primarily in B-10 impurities present in the SS316 in addition to a two-step reaction of low-energy neutrons with Ni.
