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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
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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.
Renjing Fan, Peng Fu, Jun Tao, Ge Gao, Liansheng Huang, Zhiquan Song, Jinchao Li, Yulong Ye
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 76 | Number 1 | January 2020 | Pages 21-28
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1610318
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The ITER poloidal field (PF) coil power supply system consists of 14 basic converter units that feed six superconducting coils. The converter unit is the complicated, challenging, and unique system to realize four-quadrant operation compatible with the superconductive load and the demand for plasma control. This paper describes the final design of the control strategies, which are implemented in the local controller of the PF converter system. They are zero crossing current control strategy in circulating operation mode, current balance control strategy in parallel operation mode, and hysteresis band control strategy in mode transition. In addition, the performance of the control system is demonstrated by the analysis, and the control strategies are validated by the simulations and corresponding tests.
