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
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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.
Quanwen Wu, Zhenhua Zheng, Jinchun Bao, Wenhua Luo, Daqiao Meng, Zhiyong Huang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 2 | February 2021 | Pages 81-87
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2020.1850157
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In nuclear fusion reactor facilities, the multi-confinement system and the air detritiation system (ADS) are very important to prevent tritium leaking to the environment. A high-performance tritium oxidation catalyst is strongly required in the ADS. In this study, the air resistance and catalytic performance of honeycomb detritiation catalysts are investigated. Then, the honeycomb catalysts are applied in a glove-box detritiation system as well as in an ADS, and the detritiation performance is tested with tritium. Honeycomb catalysts have a much lower air resistance and an excellent scale-up effect due to the behavior of laminar flow. Thus, the honeycomb catalyst increases the reaction space velocity by nearly 100 times without decreasing the conversion rate of H2. Even at an extremely low tritium concentration, the honeycomb catalyst transforms tritium over 95% into tritiated water. In short, Pt-loaded honeycomb catalysts have a huge advantage in and broad potential for air detritiation.