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.
Victor Ignatiev, Aleksandr Surenkov, Ivan Gnidoi, Vladimir Fedulov, Vadim Uglov, Valery Afonichkin, Andrei Bovet, Vladimir Subbotin, Aleksandr Panov, Andrei Toropov
Nuclear Technology | Volume 164 | Number 1 | October 2008 | Pages 130-142
Technical Paper | Icapp '06 | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A4014
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the last years, there has been a real growth of interest in the use of high-temperature molten salt fluorides as coolants and fuel salts in nuclear power systems. For all molten salt reactor (MSR) concepts, material selection is a very important issue. This paper summarizes results of recent work done within the ISTC#1606 project and the present state of knowledge about container materials for MSRs. The central focus is the compatibility of Ni-based alloys with the molten Li,Na,Be/F salt system as applied to the primary circuit of the MOlten Salt Actinide Recycler & Transmuter (MOSART) fueled with different compositions of actinide trifluorides from light water reactor spent fuel without U-Th support. Results from recent studies with a Li,Na,Be/F thermal convection loop at temperatures up to 700°C are presented. Material specimens of three modified Hastelloy N alloys, particularly HN80M-VI with 1% of Nb, HN80MTY with 1% of Al, and MONICR with 2% of Fe, were used for our study in corrosion facilities. Methods to purify the molten salt composition and to improve Ni-based container alloy compatibility by maintaining the salt at a low redox potential are discussed. The effect on materials compatibility of adding plutonium trifluoride and tellurium to the Li,Na,Be/F solvent system is also considered. Last, testing of advanced Ni-based alloys with various compositions to enhance first of all its resistance to tellurium intergranular cracking should be continued in thermal convection loops with a long exposure time for the MOSART fuel salts as well as the novel nonmoderated thorium sustainable MSR concept in the framework of the new ISTC#3749 project.