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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.
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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.
L. El-Guebaly, S. Malang, A. Rowcliffe, L. Waganer
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 2 | September 2015 | Pages 251-258
Technical Paper | Proceedings of TOFE-2014 | doi.org/10.13182/FST15-124
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the U.S., the Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF) is viewed as an essential element of the fusion developmental roadmap. The tritium self-sufficiency, blanket testing, and materials testing are of particular interest since they define a critical element of the FNSF mission. There is a definitive need to breed the majority of, if not all, the tritium required for operation. A staged blanket testing strategy has been developed to test and enhance the blanket performance during each phase of operation. A materials testing module is critically important to include in FNSF to test large specimens of future generations of materials (for blanket, divertor, magnets, etc.) in relevant fusion environment. In this strategy, the test modules play a pivotal role and serve as “forerunners” for more advanced versions of blanket and materials that will validate their characteristics and features to assure the successful operation of DEMO and advanced power plants.