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
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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.
Mamoru Shoji, Masahiro Kobayashi, Suguru Masuzaki, Akio Sagara, Hiroshi Yamada, Akio Komori, LHD Experimental Groups
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 2 | August 2009 | Pages 1001-1008
Divertors and High Heat Flux Components | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A9041
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new closed helical divertor configuration for efficient particle control and reduction of the heat load on the divertor plates is proposed. The closed divertor configuration practically utilizes an ergodic layer and magnetic field line configuration on divertor legs in helical systems. For optimization of the design of the closed divertor, the distribution of the strike points is calculated in various magnetic configurations in the Large Helical Device (LHD). It suggests that the installation of the closed divertor components in the inboard side of the torus under an inward shift configuration (Rax=3.60m) is the best choice for achieving the above two purposes. This divertor configuration does not interfere with plasma heating and diagnostic systems installed in outer ports. The prospect of the closed divertor configuration to a helical fusion reactor is investigated using a three-dimensional neutral particle transport simulation code with a one-dimensional plasma fluid calculation on the divertor legs. The investigation shows efficient particle pumping from the in board side and reduction of the heat load due to the combined effect of the optimized closed divertor geometry, ergodized divertor legs, and low electron temperature in the ergodic layer. It indicates a promising closed divertor configuration for helical fusion reactors.
