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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
Standards Program
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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.
Technical Session|Panel|Sponsored by NNPD
Wednesday, November 16, 2022|1:00–2:45PM MST|Bougainvillea
Session Chair:
Benjamin B. Cipiti (Sandia National Laboratories)
Alternate Chair:
John Mattingly (NCSU)
Session Organizer:
Panelists from industry and government will discuss the integration of safeguards and security into advanced reactor designs. Many emergent advanced reactor designs plan to use high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel, which is enriched to greater than 10% but less than 20% in uranium-235. In assessments of proliferation risk, the use of HALEU fuel should be considered in conjunction with other important reactor performance metrics, including higher power density, greater fuel utilization, longer refueling cycles, and higher fuel burnup, which may reduce overall proliferation risk. Panelists will discuss assessments of proliferation risk, measures planned to mitigate it in alternative advanced reactor designs, and by-design approaches to safeguards and security. They will also discuss the role of safeguards and security in enabling the US to maintain and expand its position in the global nuclear energy market and promote its own nonproliferation agenda.
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