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.
Gunji Nisio, Motoe Suzuki, Shigeo Mukaide, Junichi Takada, Michio Tsukamoto, Tadao Koike
Nuclear Technology | Volume 95 | Number 3 | September 1991 | Pages 325-336
Technical Paper | Enrichment and Reprocessing System | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34581
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A nuclear fuel reprocessing plant is equipped with an air ventilation system consisting of cells, ducts, dampers, high-efficiency particulate air filters, and blowers. This ventilation system is required to have multiple safeguards in order to confine airborne radioactive materials within the plant in the event of fire, explosion, and criticality. To evaluate these safeguards, three kinds of explosive burning tests are performed using a large-scale facility simulating the ventilation system of a reprocessing plant. In the boilover test, an organic solvent is burned on a layer of water in a burning pan to determine the magnitude of the burning caused by the sudden boiling of the water under the solvent. The optimum conditions for boilover burning are determined by the relationship between the pan size and the ventilation rate. In the deflagration tests, to investigate the mitigating effects of the cell and duct structures in the ventilation system, rocket fuel is burned in the test cell to generate a transient gas overload. A decrease is observed in the pressure, temperature, and flow rate peaks of the gas in the facility. To confirm the integrity of the blower and the durability of the ventilation system motor, a blower test is performed. Pressurized air accumulated in a tank is forced into the blower, and the response of the blower is measured.