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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.
Philippe M. Bardet, Ryan P. Abbott, Chris Campen, James Franklin, Haihua Zhao, Per F. Peterson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 4 | November 2007 | Pages 932-937
Technical Paper | Inertial Fusion Technology: Drivers and Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1613
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Z-Pinch IFE chamber fluid mechanics can be studied using simulant fluids such as water in reduced scale facilities. The use of porous liquid and solid blanket materials provides the key to mitigating blast effects from fusion reaction. The UCB Vacuum Hydraulics Experiment (VHEX) was recently upgraded with a large, annular inlet nozzle system to produce an annular porous liquid curtains to study Z-Pinch IFE chamber response. Explosives experiments in VHEX studied the response of the liquid structure to the detonation of high explosive C-4. The experiments demonstrated that the crushing of porous liquid structures is effective in transferring momentum uniformly into the blanket mass. No significant high-speed jetting or spall was observed exiting the shocked liquid structure. Independent measurement of the transient pressure history, coupled with high-speed video of the blanket response and final velocity, will provide the basis to validate gas dynamics and blanket response models.