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
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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.
Rajesh K. Ahluwalia, Thanh Q. Hua, Howard K. Geyer
Nuclear Technology | Volume 133 | Number 1 | January 2001 | Pages 103-118
Technical Paper | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT01-A3162
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
During electrorefining of irradiated, binary U-Zr Experimental Breeder Reactor II fuel, a portion of zirconium is found to dissolve along with uranium. It accumulates in the cadmium pool both as dissolved zirconium and as a zirconium-cadmium intermetallic precipitate. Two electrochemical methods of removing zirconium from the electrorefiner have been evaluated. The first is a three-step method consisting of chemical oxidation of zirconium by CdCl2 addition, depletion of zirconium from the cadmium pool by electrotransport, and drawdown of zirconium from the LiCl-KCl eutectic salt by using a different electrorefiner configuration. A transport model is employed to determine the cell operating conditions for growing pure zirconium deposits and the throughput rate. The second method eliminates the chemical oxidation step and permits codeposition of uranium and zirconium onto the solid cathode. The transport model is used to assess the level of uranium impurity in the cathode product; an additional step is proposed to reoxidize uranium in the deposit. The two methods are compared from the standpoints of throughput, deposit composition, deposit adherence to a solid cathode mandrel, and the underlying uncertainties. A brief review is given of the related past laboratory work on removal of zirconium from the electrorefiner.
