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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.
W. J. G. Workman, S. B. Kim, T. G. Kotzer
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 763-766
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Biology, Health, and Radiation | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A1032
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The measurement of organically bound tritium in environmental samples is essential for assessing the impact of tritium releases in terms of doses to the general public and a growing number of laboratories are now required to make them. Interlaboratory comparisons provide one way for laboratories to practice and check their analytical methods and procedures. At AECL's Chalk River Laboratories, two organic matrices with tritium concentrations less than 1.5 kBq/g were developed and distributed to seven laboratories in Canada, Europe and Russia for measurement. Some participants experienced difficulties in analysing the samples, especially with the lower concentrations, where results varied by more than an order of magnitude. Laboratories incorporating procedures such as rinsing to remove tritium from exchangeable sites, using standardized combustion methods and purifying the combustion water obtained more reliable, consistent results. The preparation of the standard reference material must be carefully executed in order to produce a homogeneous sample of uniform size. The tritium measurement community would benefit if standard reference materials in the environmental concentration range were available.