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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.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.
Joao Seco, Nick Depauw, Sylvain Danto, Harald Paganeti, Yoel Fink
Nuclear Technology | Volume 175 | Number 1 | July 2011 | Pages 27-31
Technical Paper | Special Issue on the 16th Biennial Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division / Radiation Biology; Radiation Used in Medicine | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A12265
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Proton radiography is an imaging technique with potential application in proton radiation therapy. The ability of a proton radiograph to differentiate anatomical features in the thoracic region, such as heart, lung, rib cage, shoulder, etc., was qualitatively investigated using Monte Carlo simulations. A patient with a stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer tumor located in the right upper lobe and mediastinum was considered for this study. The GEANT4 Monte Carlo toolkit was used to simulate proton transport through a proton nozzle and through the lung area of the patient, registering in a phase-space file the entry and exit energy, position, and motion direction of each proton. The Monte Carlo simulation ran a total of 10 million histories with the highest deliverable energy of 235 MeV at the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center. The proton radiograph was then generated independently of the Monte Carlo simulation, using a numerical algorithm to input the proton position, direction of motion, and energy kept in the entry and exit phase-space files. The proton radiograph was compared to the standard portal X-ray image for tissue and tumor contrast, and for visibility relative to the background lung tissue. The preliminary results with GEANT4 showed that the proton radiography can produce images with good spatial resolution and excellent soft tissue contrast, resulting in better tumor edge localization within a soft tissue background region such as the lung.