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
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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.
Simona Zaharov, Alexandru E. Nedelcu, Liliana A. Samson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 3 | May 2024 | Pages 576-581
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2214701
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), the only CANDU (CANada Deuterium Uranium) technology in Europe, is located in the southeast of Romania at the confluence of the Danube River and the Danube–Black Sea Channel, about 60 km from the Black Sea (Constanta County) and about 160 km from Bucharest. The Cernavoda NPP has two operating units of 700 MW(electric) and produces about 20% of the electric power of Romania (Unit 1 since December 1996 and Unit 2 since November 2007). The Environmental Control Laboratory (ECL) of the Cernavoda NPP, located in Cernavoda town 2 km from the Cernavoda NPP, is part of the Radiation Protection Department and is equipped with performant analyzing systems to determine the natural and artificial radionuclide levels in the environmental samples within a 30-km area around the Cernavoda NPP.
The Environmental Radioactivity Monitoring Program for the Cernavoda NPP started in 1996, and all necessary activities are performed in the ECL, which has a quality assurance program according to the appropriate international standards and is participating in many intercomparison exercises and proficiency tests to validate the analyzing methods and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the environmental program, as a mandatory condition in the certification of the ECL and the reauthorization process of the Cernavoda NPP by the Romanian regulatory body, National Commission for Nuclear Activities Control. The annual report contains all the results for the environmental radioactivity monitoring and effluent monitoring; the results of the monitoring program are annually compared with the results of the Preoperational Environmental Monitoring Program performed between 1984 and 1994. This paperwork presents the evaluation of tritium activity levels in environmental samples around the Cernavoda NPP and the impact on the public health after 25 years of operation (1996 to 2021).
