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 Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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.
Shameem Hasan, Tushar K. Ghosh, Mark A. Prelas, Dabir S. Viswanath, Veera M. Boddu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 159 | Number 1 | July 2007 | Pages 59-71
Technical Paper | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3856
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Chitosan was coated on an inert substrate, perlite, and was prepared as spherical beads for adsorption of uranium from aqueous solutions. The uptake capacity of chitosan-coated perlite beads for uranium varied from 98.9 to 149 000 g/g when the equilibrium concentration of uranium in the solution ranged from 11 ppb (11 g/l) to 1000 ppm (10 × 106 g/l) and the solution pH was 5. The adsorption capacity of chitosan-coated perlite beads for uranium decreased by 75% in the presence of 0.45 M NaCl, whereas the adsorption capacity decreased by 55% when TiO2 was added to the beads during their preparation. The adsorption capacity of TiO2-containing chitosan beads for uranium was found to be in the range of 2.5 to 40 g of uranium per gram of beads when the concentration of uranium was 39 to 734 g/l in the presence of 0.45 M NaCl. It was in the range of 18 to 302 g of uranium per gram of beads when the concentration was 990 to 47 000 g/l in the presence of 0.45 M Na2CO3. Chitosan-coated beads were found to preferentially adsorb uranium, Cd, and Cr from a mixture containing these ions along with Sr and Cs. Only a negligible amount of Sr and Cs was adsorbed by chitosan-coated beads. The data suggest that the chitosan-coated beads can be used for both extraction of uranium from waste streams and also from a highly acidic medium such as a reprocessing stream that uses nitric acid.
