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
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.
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.
T. Someya, S. Kawata, T. Nakamura, A. I. Ogoyski, K. Shimizu, J. Sasaki
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 43 | Number 3 | May 2003 | Pages 282-289
Technical Paper | Targets and Target Protection During Injection | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A268
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Key issues of heavy-ion beam (HIB) inertial confinement fusion (ICF) include an efficient beam transport, beam focus, uniform fuel pellet implosion, etc. The HIB final transport and a direct-drive fuel pellet implosion by computer simulations in HIB ICF are examined. To realize a fine focus on a fuel pellet, space charge neutralization of incident-focusing HIBs may be required at HIB final transport. First, an insulator annular tube guide is proposed at the final portion of the transport, through which an HIB is transported. The physical mechanism of HIB charge neutralization based on an insulator guide is as follows: The local electric field created by HIB induces local discharges, and a plasma is produced on the insulator inner surface. Then electrons are extracted from the plasma by HIB net space charge. The emitted electrons neutralize the beam space charge and move together with the HIB. After the final transport, the HIBs enter a reactor gas and illuminate a fuel pellet. Direct-drive DT pellet implosion were also simulated. The simulation results present a density valley formation by a Pb HIB deposition in a fuel pellet energy absorber layer and a radiation-smoothing effect along the density valley. The density valley provides radiation confinement, and beam nonuniformity can be smoothed along the valley.