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
Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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.
Tae-Hoon Lee, Young-Soo Kim, Tae-Je Kwon, Hee-Sung Shin, Ho-Dong Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 179 | Number 2 | August 2012 | Pages 196-204
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-77
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In pyroprocessing it is important to determine the amount of Pu in the various streams of materials involved. This paper presents two approaches to determine the Pu mass of spent fuel assemblies using nondestructive assay and burnup simulation code. Cm balance is adopted and the concept of "Cm ratio," the mass ratio of Pu to Cm, is used for the nuclear material accountancy for the model pyroprocessing facility. The biggest error of the nuclear material accountancy is expected to arise from the determination of Pu mass and Cm ratio in input homogeneously mixed uranium oxide powder, which is assayed nondestructively. One approach to determine the Pu mass and Cm ratio is to apply the average burnup of spent fuel and determine the Pu mass and Cm ratio by using the ORIGEN code. The estimated error in Pu mass determined by this method ranges from 0.94% to 2.33% for a total of 225 spent fuel assemblies of various burnup, initial enrichment, and cooling time. The other approach is to use the functional relationship between the neutron emission rate and Pu mass of spent fuel. The error in Pu mass calculated using this method ranges from -1.68% to 3.86%.
