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
Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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, DeeEarl Vaden
Nuclear Technology | Volume 145 | Number 1 | January 2004 | Pages 67-81
Technical Paper | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3461
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A unique high-throughput Mk-V electrorefiner is being used in the electrometallurgical treatment of the metallic sodium-bonded blanket fuel from the Experimental Breeder Reactor II. Over many cycles, it transports uranium back and forth between the anodic fuel dissolution baskets and the cathode tubes until, because of imperfect adherence of the dendrites, it all ends up in the product collector at the bottom. The transport behavior of uranium in the high-throughput electrorefiner can be understood in terms of the sticking coefficients for uranium adherence to the cathode tubes in the forward direction and to the dissolution baskets in the reverse direction. The sticking coefficients are inferred from the experimental voltage and current traces and are correlated in terms of a single parameter representing the ratio of the cell current to the limiting current at the surface acting as the cathode. The correlations are incorporated into an engineering model that calculates the transport of uranium in the different modes of operation. The model also uses the experimentally derived electrorefiner operating maps that describe the relationship between the cell voltage and the cell current for the three principal transport modes. It is shown that the model correctly simulates the cycle-to-cycle variation of the voltage and current profiles. The model is used to conduct a parametric study of electrorefiner throughput rate as a function of the principal operating parameters. The throughput rate is found to improve with lowering of the basket rotation speed, reduction of UCl3 concentration in salt, and increasing the maximum cell current or cut-off voltage. Operating conditions are identified that can improve the throughput rate by 60 to 70% over that achieved at present.