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Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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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.
Andrew C. Kauffman, Don W. Miller, Thomas D. Radcliff, Keith W. Maupin, Daniel J. Mills, V. Matthew Penrod
Nuclear Technology | Volume 140 | Number 2 | November 2002 | Pages 222-232
Technical Paper | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technologies | doi.org/10.13182/NT02-A3335
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An in-reactor test facility has been designed and built at The Ohio State University Research Reactor to evaluate the static and dynamic performance of nuclear reactor in-core sensors in environmental and neutronic conditions comparable to those expected in a high-temperature gas reactor. The primary objective for design and construction of this facility was to evaluate the performance of prototype constant-temperature power sensors. The facility can test sensors and materials over a wide range of temperatures up to 800°C, over a range of Reynolds numbers that can be varied to evaluate thermal-dynamic response, and at a reasonable neutron flux value that can be oscillated nearly 7% (up to 100 Hz eventually) to deterministically evaluate sensor transfer functions. Testing has demonstrated that this facility safely performs its desired functions with the current limitation of a 50-Hz maximum neutron flux oscillation speed.