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
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.
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.
Yung Sung Cheng, Yue Zhou, Charles A. Gentile, Charles H. Skinner
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 41 | Number 3 | May 2002 | Pages 867-871
Material Interaction and Permeation | Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology Tsukuba, Japan November 12-16, 2001 | doi.org/10.13182/FST02-A22708
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Amorphous tritiated carbon films are formed through co-deposition of the radioactive isotope tritium (3H or T) with carbon onto plasma facing surfaces in fusion plasmas. The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), operated by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, was fueled by tritium and deuterium neutral beam injection and gas puffing. Tritium was co-deposited as amorphous hydrogenated carbon onto graphite tiles and stainless steel surfaces inside the reactor. Since termination of plasma operations, carbon tritide particles have remained in the air in the vessel. Dosimetric limits for occupational exposure to carbon tritide particles need to be established. The purpose of this study was to characterize carbon tritide particle samples inside the TFTR in terms of size, self-absorption of tritium beta, and dissolution rate in simulated lung fluid. Dose estimates of the inhaled carbon tritide particles can be calculated based on the dissolution rate, particle size, and self-absorption factor. The count median diameter and geometric standard deviation were 1.23 µm and 1.72, respectively, indicating that they are respirable particles and can stay suspended in the air for a longer time. The dissolution rate in the lung-simulated fluid was determined in a static system. The dissolution rate ranged from 10−1–10−3 per day in the first few hours, then it decreased to between 10−3 and 10−4. The retention curve of tritium in carbon indicated that >90% of the tritium remained in the particles after 110 d in the simulated lung fluid. This information is being used to support the establishment of respiratory protection requirements.