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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
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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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.
Chang Yong Jin, Young Seok Bang (KINS)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 887-892
Since the design of Advanced Power Reactor 1400MWe (APR1400) has a deep loop seal geometry, loop seal reformation during Small Break Loss-Of-Coolant Accident (SBLOCA) has been concerned due to its possible effect on core uncovery and significant cladding temperature rise. Therefore it has been an important safety issue of SBLOCA and it has been vital to understand the effect of loop seal clearing and reformation on the core uncovery and cladding temperature.
In this study, SBLOCA of APR1400 was analyzed with MARS-KS (KINS Standard version of Multi-dimensional Analysis of Reactor Safety) code to investigate the thermal-hydraulic behavior including loop seal clearing and reformation. The break spectrum analysis was performed to identify the effect of break size to confirm the limiting case leading to Peak Cladding Temperature (PCT). The limiting case of MARS-KS calculation was compared with that of SPACE (Safety and Performance Analysis CodE). Particularly the thermal-hydraulic parameters including the system pressure and the water level of core and downcomer were identified in detail.
