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
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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.
Nathan Andrews, Koroush Shirvan, Edward E. Pilat, Mujid S. Kazimi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 194 | Number 2 | May 2016 | Pages 204-216
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-41
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A comparison of burning weapons-grade plutonium in a standard pressurized water reactor (PWR) using thoria or urania as a fuel matrix has been performed. Two cladding options were considered: a silicon carbide (SiC) matrix of 0.76-mm thickness and Zircaloy of 0.57-mm thickness. As expected, in terms of percentage and total plutonium mass burned, there was a large benefit in using thoria as a matrix compared to urania. Additionally, a smaller amount of plutonium is required in a core when SiC is the cladding because of lower neutron absorption in SiC. The thorium system was also better from a plutonium-burning viewpoint. It resulted in less weapons-useable U and Pu at discharge and more burned over an assembly’s lifetime. At discharge, the fuel was shown to have lower multiples of minimum amounts needed for weapons, even when 233U breeding was taken into account. Thoria-plutonia fuel has different kinetic characteristics from urania-plutonia or enriched urania fuel, so a limited safety comparison of such fuels was made for two reactivity insertion accidents: (1) the highest worth rod ejection and (2) main-steam-line break (MSLB). The accident analyses were performed at both beginning and end of cycle. While the control rod worths are higher in the simulated thoria-plutonia and urania-plutonia cores than in conventional urania-loaded cores, the enthalpy added during the accident was lower than current safety limits for conventional cores. During the MSLB accident, all cases showed acceptable behavior, indicating that the less negative moderator temperature coefficients of thoria-plutonia and urania-plutonia fuel were not limiting.