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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!
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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.
Jean-Claude Alder
Nuclear Technology | Volume 86 | Number 2 | August 1989 | Pages 197-206
Technical Paper | Decontamination and Decommissioning / Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A34271
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In Switzerland, studies have demonstrated the feasibility of the safe disposal of all types of nuclear waste. Decommissioning wastes from the five existing Swiss nuclear plants can be classified into different types for disposal purposes, based on these studies. These wastes are assumed to be packaged in large (20-m3) containers. Requirements for the waste packages are determined and are severe for the highly radiating and heat-producing waste. Results from safety analyses of a proposed underground repository for low- and intermediate-level waste are applied to these decommissioning waste types. Expected doses from disposal of the waste in the underground repository, as well as in a near-surface repository, provide a basis for a classification of the waste for the two types of repositories. Wastes can then be allocated to appropriate disposal facilities that can provide the required degree of safety.