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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.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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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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.
Q. T. Pham, N. Tauveron (Grenoble Alps Univ), N. Alpy (CEA)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 441-450
Co-existence of nuclear-renewable energies in a single hybrid power plant has been considered as an efficient and economical option to significantly reduce environmental impacts due to combination of two clean and climate-friendly decarbonized energy sources. The concept refers to an innovative system to balance the fluctuating renewable energy source such as wind, hydro and solar with the constant, base load nuclear output in order to smooth the energy production and to respond to the increasingly varying electricity demand. In the literature, few works have been reported on hybridization of a solar power plant with a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) employing the proven pressurized water reactor technology wherein steam Rankine cycle is used for power conversion system at relatively low pressure. The current work suggests an integration of a SMR and a concentrated solar power plant (CSP) equipped with a thermal energy storage (TES) in which supercritical CO?Brayton cycle is adopted for power generation. The nuclear energy loop transfers heat to the electrical generation loop and the solar heat serves for raising the incoming gas temperature at the turbine inlet. The implementation of the thermal energy storage system enables continuous gas heating and non-stop plant operation. The proposed hybrid configuration is aimed at benefiting the technological advancements in exchangers and gas turbines to reach the plant thermal efficiency as high as feasible. The plant’s performance at design point is simulated by Engineering Equation Solver software. The simulation data present the potential enhancements of the suggested nuclear-solar hybrid plant’s thermodynamic efficiency in comparison to a single nuclear plant. In addition, advantages of utilization of SCO? Brayton cycle instead of classical steam Rankine cycle in such innovative hybrid system is also investigated. It is highlighted that hybrid operation could provide a substantial gain for cycle efficiency, up to 9-10 points, compared to single nuclear one’s, with possibly slightly improved performance for SCO? compare to Steam.
