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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.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.
Yu Ponkratov, E. Batyrbekov, M. Khasenov, K. Samarkhanov, Ye Chikhray
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 4 | May 2021 | Pages 327-332
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1887714
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The paper describes the technology of creating a surface source of high-energy tritium ions and alpha particles formed as a result of a nuclear reaction of the interaction of the 6Li isotope with thermal neutrons .
Different design versions of the developed irradiating ampoule devices are presented, and a description of the experimental reactor facility is given. The paper also describes the scheme of reactor experiments to study the spectral-luminescent characteristics of nuclear-excited plasma of argon. The results of test experiments are presented, and they show the applicability of high-energy tritium ions and alpha particles for nuclear excitation of luminescence of inert gas mixtures.
