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Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.
K. Kotoh et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 4 | November 2011 | Pages 1355-1358
Detritiation and Isotope Separation | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12681
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Focusing on the behavior of hydrogen isotopes onto synthetic zeolites (SZ) at cryogenic temperatures such as liquefied nitrogen, we have been developing a system of pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process for hydrogen isotope separation applicable to fusion fuel processing, environmental tritium safety confinement or recovery of tritium from heavy water reactors. We have previously reported the experimental results of successive isotope separation and enrichment in a H2-D2 mixture by the PSA process using a single column packed with SZ-5A. In this work, a PSA experiment using SZ-13X was carried out in a similar way to the previous experiment for comparing the functional adsorbents. The result shows that the PSA process operation with SZ-13X can make the performance of heavier isotope enrichment with efficiency at a factor of near twice in comparison to the same operation with SZ-5A.
