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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.
M. Zucchetti, L. Guerrini, Y. Poitevin, I. Ricapito, M. Zmitko
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 2 | August 2011 | Pages 765-770
Safety & Environment | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12477
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The determination of the radioactive inventory and of the contact dose rates in the different ITER Test Blanket Modules systems is carried out, both for Helium-Cooled Lithium-Lead (HCLL) concept and the Helium-Cooled Pebble-Bed (HCPB) concept. The evaluations have been carried out by means of the MICROSHIELD code, starting from the data on the neutron-induced radioactivity in the blanket materials, completely available for both the blanket modules. The possible sources of radioactive material in all the systems have been individuated and their contributes estimated. In general, for both HCLL and HCPB systems, radioactivity inventory and contact dose rates turn out to be quite moderate. No particular radioactive safety concern should arise for the examined components.
