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
Robotics & Remote Systems
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.
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.
H. Y. Khater, R. R. Peterson, I. N. Sviatoslavsky
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | March 2001 | Pages 1013-1017
Safety and Environment | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963375
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Using xenon as a fill gas in IFE chambers results in generating a large amount of radioactive xenon, iodine, and cesium isotopes. The cesium isotopes, 134Cs and 136Cs, and the iodine isotope, 126I, would produce a high level of off-site dose (62.13 rem) at the plant site boundary if they were released entirely to the environment during an accident. The xenon gas is pumped out of the chamber (recycled) during operation to remove unburned T2 and D2. Removing the Cs and I isotopes from the Xe gas during this recycling process will reduce the Cs and I inventories inside the chamber to negligible values. This process limited the off-site dose caused by the accidental release of Xe from the chamber of the SOMBRERO power plant to 29.9 mrem, which is less than the 1 rem no-evacuation limit. Using krypton, argon or neon as fill gases will result in producing lower levels of off-site dose than xenon.
