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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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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.
John T. Mihalczo
Nuclear Technology | Volume 175 | Number 2 | August 2011 | Pages 498-508
Technical Paper | Radiation Measurements and General Instrumentation | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A12320
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Prompt neutron decay at delayed criticality was measured by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for uranium-reflected highly enriched uranium (HEU) and Pu metal spheres (FLATTOP), for an unreflected Pu metal (4.5% 240Pu) sphere (JEZEBEL) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and for an unreflected HEU metal sphere at Oak Ridge Critical Experiments Facility. The average prompt neutron decay constants from hundreds of Rossi- and randomly pulsed neutron measurements with 252Cf at delayed criticality are as follows: 3.8458 ± 0.0016 × 105 s-1 , 2.2139 ± 0.0022 × 105 s-1 , 6.3126 ± 0.0100 × 105 s-1 , and 1.1061 ± 0.0009 × 106 s-1 , respectively. These values agree with previous measurements by LANL for FLATTOP, JEZEBEL, and GODIVA I as follows: 3.82 ± 0.02 × 105 s-1 for a uranium core; 2.14 ± 0.05 × 105 s-1 and 2.29 × 105 s-1 (uncertainty not reported) for a plutonium core; 6.4 ± 0.1 × 105 s-1 , and 1.1 ± 0.1 × 106 s-1 , respectively, but have smaller uncertainties because of the larger number of measurements. For the FLATTOP and JEZEBEL assemblies, the measurements agree with calculations. Traditionally, the calculated decay constants for the bare uranium metal sphere GODIVA I and the Oak Ridge Uranium Metal Sphere were higher than experimental by [approximately]10%. Other energy-dependent quantities for the bare uranium sphere agree within 1%.