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.
C. Gil, C. De Michelis, D. Elbeze, C. Fenzi, J. P. Gunn, F. Imbeaux, Ph. Lotte, D. Mazon, O. Meyer, M. Missirlian, Ph. Moreau, R. Reichle, R. Sabot, F. Saint-Laurent, J.-L. Segui, A. Simonin, J.-M. Travere, J.-C. Vallet, Tore Supra Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 3 | October 2009 | Pages 1219-1252
Technical Papers | Tore Supra Special Issue | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A9175
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Realizing high-power long-duration discharges puts specific constraints on diagnostics: Their front parts have to withstand important thermal loads, eventually requiring active cooling of critical parts, and drifts in measurements have to be avoided in order to supply reliable measurement during the whole discharge duration. Furthermore, the importance of diagnostics for missions other than physics understanding, such as machine operation or safety control, increases. The diagnostics system of Tore Supra consists of roughly 30 diagnostics, covering a large range of plasma parameters from the core to the edge. They have been designed for long-duration plasma discharges, which can last up to 1000 s. Their inner components have been dimensioned to endure continuous high-radiation fluxes, and most of them have been conceived to give a fair measurement all along the discharges.