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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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!
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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.
Tae Young Kong, Gamal Akabani, John W. Poston, Sr.
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 6 | June 2019 | Pages 781-789
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1546536
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The 2007 Recommendation of the International Commission on Radiological Protection [ICRP Publication 103, Elsevier (2007)] requires implementation of the concept of a dose constraint for members of the public living around nuclear facilities. Under the paradigm of regulatory science, the use of dose constraints is still highly debatable. This study determines whether a dose constraint is necessary for members of the public living near U.S. nuclear power plants (NPPs) using data from the years 2007 to 2009, which were provided by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. As a result of analysis of exposure data, it is concluded that a dose constraint is not necessary for members of the public living around U.S. NPPs and that such a constraint may place an unnecessary regulatory burden on the licensees.
