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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.
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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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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.
Min H. Chang et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 3 | October 2011 | Pages 918-921
Tritium Storage | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12566
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The tritium compatible pumps are applied to the transportation of the fuel gases in the nuclear fusion power plant. Based on the limitations to handle the tritium gas, the development of the tritium compatible pumps is restricted and the information of those is not well-known. Through Normetex scroll and metal bellows pumps, which are utilized in the tritium facility in the world, are famous tritium compatible pumps, the information has the limitations for the capability of those. It is needed to evaluate the performance of those experimentally.The non-destructive characteristics evaluation system for dry vacuum pump is utilized for the performance tests of the MB 601 HP and the combination of the Normetex 15 scroll and the MB 601 HP pumps. Nitrogen and helium gases are applied for the performance tests. In the case of the MB 601 HP, significant dependency is found on gas species: the test on the pumping speeds with using nitrogen shows the similar result with the catalogue data but the different behavior with using helium gas. In the case of the combination of the Normetex 15 scroll and the MB 601 HP pumps, however, it is observed that the effect of the species of gases is reduced.
