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The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.
Mohamed A. Abdou
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 1 | July 1985 | Pages 1081-1090
Nuclear Technology Development Issue and Need (Finesse) | Proceedings of the Sixth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (San Francisco, California, March 3-7, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A39916
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
FINESSE is a study concerned with technical planning of experiments and facilities for fusion nuclear technology research and development. The effort is focused on: a) understanding the key issues, b) developing the scientific basis for engineering scaling and experimental planning, and c) identifying the characteristics, role and timing of major facilities required. Fusion nuclear technology is found to have many of fusion's remaining unresolved feasibility and attractiveness issues. Resolving these issues requires new knowledge from experiments and theory. Non-neutron test stands can play an important role in liquid metal blanket experiments. Fission reactors have some limitations, but they provide the bulk heating and radiation effects necessary for many solid breeder blanket experiments. Concept verification for fusion nuclear components may not be possible prior to testing in fusion devices.