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
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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.
Dirk J. Oh, Hong S. Lim, Myeong Y. Ohn, Kang M. Lee, Ho C. Suk
Nuclear Technology | Volume 114 | Number 3 | June 1996 | Pages 292-307
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35234
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The CATHENA “slave” channel model is used for fuel channel analysis of a 30% reactor inlet header break in a Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU)-6 reactor loaded with 43-element bundles of advanced CANDU [CANDU flexible fueling (CANFLEX)] fuel. The predicted results are compared with those for the reactor loaded with standard 37-element bundles. The maximum fuel centerline and sheath temperatures for the CANFLEX bundle are lower by 388 and 128°C, respectively, than those for the standard bundle because of the lower maximum linear power of the CANFLEX bundle. The pressure tube (PT)/calandria tube (CT) contact for the CANFLEX bundle occurs 2 s later than that for the standard bundle. The PT/CT contact temperature for the CANFLEX bundle is 7°C lower than that for the standard bundle. These provide the CANFLEX bundle with a slightly enhanced safety margin for fuel channel integrity in the CANDU-6 reactor, compared with the standard bundle. The effect of bearing pad (BP)/PT contact on the PT temperature predictions is assessed. A BP/PT contact conductance of 3 kW/m2·K prior to the onset of PT ballooning creates ∼ 100° C of a local hot spot at the contacted PT sector. A BP/PT contact conductance of 0.5 kW/m2·K after PT ballooning does not create any hot spot because it gives the contacted PT sector approximately the same heat transfer as convective heating by the hot coolant for the adjacent sector. The assumed BP/PT contact conductance does not threaten the fuel channel integrity.
