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
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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.
I. N. Sviatoslavsky, G. L. Kulcinski, G. A. Moses, D. Bruggink, R. L. Engelstad, H. Y. Khater, E. M. Larsen, E. G. Lovell, J. J. MacFarlane, E. A. Mogahed, R. R. Peterson, M. E. Sawan, P. Wang, L. J. Wittenberg
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 26 | Number 3 | November 1994 | Pages 868-872
Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor, Reactor Target, and Driver | Proceedings of the Eleventh Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy New Orleans, Louisiana June 19-23, 1994 | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A40263
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper describes the design of a 1000 MWe inertially confined fusion power reactor utilizing near symmetric illumination provided by a KrF laser. The nominal laser energy is 3.4 MJ, the target gain is 118 and the rep-rate is 6.7 Hz. Sixty beams are distributed on ten horizontal planes with six beams in each plane forming a cone with the vertex at the reactor chamber center. The chamber is spherical internally with a radius of 6.5 m and is divided into 12 vertical modules consisting of two independent parts, the first wall assembly and a blanket assembly. The first wall assembly is made of a C/C composite and is cooled with non-breeding granular solid TiO2 flowing by gravity at a constant velocity. The blanket assembly is made from SiC composite and is cooled with granular Li2O also flowing by gravity. After going through the heat exchangers, the granular materials are returned to the reactor by means of a fluidized bed. The first wall is protected with a xenon buffer gas at 0.5 torr. The chamber is housed in a cylindrical building 42 m in radius and 86 m high, and is surrounded with a 1.5 m thick biological wall at a radius of 10 m. The laser beam ports are open to the containment building, sharing the same vacuum. Two power conversion cycles have been analyzed, a steam Rankine cycle with an efficiency of 47% and an advanced He gas Brayton cycle at an efficiency of 51%. The nominal COE is ∼65 mills/kWh assuming an 8% interest on capital.