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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
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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July 2025
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Smarter waste strategies: Helping deliver on the promise of advanced nuclear
At COP28, held in Dubai in 2023, a clear consensus emerged: Nuclear energy must be a cornerstone of the global clean energy transition. With electricity demand projected to soar as we decarbonize not just power but also industry, transport, and heat, the case for new nuclear is compelling. More than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy forecasts that the country’s current nuclear capacity could more than triple, adding 200 GW of new nuclear to the existing 95 GW by mid-century.
C. Sexton, T. Toll, B. McConkey, G, Harmon (AMS)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 1232-1241
Electrical cables provide essential functions such as delivery of power or instrumentation signals for most industrial monitoring systems. Most cables installed in plants use organic polymer insulation materials that can become brittle, crack, or degrade over time from exposure to harsh environmental conditions such as elevated temperature, moisture, vibration, mechanical shock and radiation. The focus of this paper describes an overall strategy for condition monitoring (CM) of electrical cables using both in-situ and laboratory assessment techniques. This cable CM strategy includes several steps to assess the health and manage the aging of the cables during the operating life of an industrial facility. These steps include performing As-Found evaluations to determine the current condition of installed cables. After the completion of the initial assessments, in-situ cable evaluations and testing are conducted to identify potential issues in the circuits including degraded terminations, splices and/or connections as well as identify degraded sections of cable insulation. This testing is accomplished with non-destructive evaluation (NDE) CM techniques that can be applied in-situ without adversely affecting the cable circuit or the end device. The As-Found and in-situ evaluations provide information about the current condition of the cable circuits as well as data used for trending age related degradation and estimating the remaining useful life (RUL) of the cables with regard to the environmental conditions they are exposed to during normal operation.