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
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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.
Ayano Nakamura, Kenzo Munakata, Keisuke Hara, Syodai Narita, Takahiko Sugiyama, Kenji Kotoh, Masahiro Tanaka, Tatsuhiko Uda
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 3 | April 2015 | Pages 499-502
Proceedings of TRITIUM 2013 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-T64
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It is necessary to recover or process tritiated species that are extensively coexistent in nuclear fusion installations. A conventional way to recover tritium release to atmosphere is catalytic oxidation of tritiated species and adsorption of tritated water vapor on adsorbents with high surface areas. However, pressure loss would become more serious with increase in the size of adsorbent beds, which could lead to greater power needs for ventilation systems. Therefore, new adsorbents with low pressure loss and high surface areas need to be developed and utilized for such large-scale adsorption systems. Thus, the authors tested new types of adsorbents, which are gear-type and honeycomb-type pellet adsorbents. The experimental results reveal that the gear-type pellet adsorbents have larger adsorption capacity than the honeycomb-type pellet adsorbent. It was also found that the gear-type MS4A adsorbent possesses larger adsorption capacity than other adsorbents tested in this work. Furthermore, it was found that new types of adsorbents are lower pressure than conventional-type of adsorbents. Among the new adsorbents studied in this work, the gear-type MS4A adsorbent appears to be most promising for the application to the adsorption systems in terms of adsorption capacity and adsorption rate.
