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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.
Yu. Balashov, A. Golubev, V. Golubeva, S. Mavrin, U. Pereligina
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 4 | November 2011 | Pages 1215-1219
Environmental and Organically Bound Tritium | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12649
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The processes of tritium uptake, losses, transformation and organically bound tritium (OBT) build-up in crops such as potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce and wheat were studied in a set of experiments on crop' short-term exposure to tritiated water (HTO) in a greenhouse. The crops were exposed at the stage of linear growth between blossoming and ripening. The results of experiments were used to develop a model of OBT build-up in crop's storage organs.The model allows estimate tritium uptake, losses in crop's leaves as well as its transformation in OBT and transport to storage organs of plants. The model parameters were obtained from the measured data for each crop's type by using regression analysis. The model was validated against experiments. The model can be used to assess OBT activity in storage organs of crops upon short-term exposure in the atmosphere contaminated by HTO.
