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
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
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.
Sung Ho Lee, Geun Il Park, Sung Bin Park
Nuclear Technology | Volume 191 | Number 2 | August 2015 | Pages 167-173
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT14-87
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Pyroprocessing technology is one of the most promising technologies for many advanced fuel cycle scenarios with favorable economic potential and intrinsic proliferation resistance. In pyroprocessing technology, the development of high-temperature transport technologies for molten salt is a crucial prerequisite and a key issue in the industrialization of pyroreprocessing. However, there have been a few transport studies on high-temperature molten salt. Three different salt transport technologies (gravity, suction pump, and centrifugal pump) were investigated to select the most suitable method for LiCl-KCl molten salt transport. The suction pump transport method was selected for molten salt transport owing to its flexibility. An apparatus for suction transport experiments was designed and installed for the development of high-temperature molten salt transport technology. Several preliminary suction transport experiments were carried out using the prepared LiCl-KCl eutectic salt at 773 K to observe the transport behavior of LiCl-KCl molten salt. For the experiments, ∼2 kg of LiCl-KCl eutectic salt was prepared by mixing 99.0% purity LiCl and KCl and drying in a convection dry oven at 473 K for 1 h. The experimental results of a laboratory-scale molten salt transport using a suction method showed a 99.5% transport rate (ratio of transported salt to total salt) under a vacuum range of 0.0133 to 1.33 kPa at 773 K. From experimental results on the mass flow rate according to suction transport time, the mass flow rate according to suction time is 1.54 kg/min. In addition, to establish engineering-scale salt transport technology, the PRIDE salt transport system was designed and installed in an Ar cell, on the second floor of the PRIDE facility, for engineering-scale salt transport demonstration, and its performance was confirmed.