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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.
K. Hara, K. Munakata, T. Wajima, K. Wada, T. Takeishi, M. Tanaka, T. Uda
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 4 | November 2011 | Pages 1339-1342
Detritiation and Isotope Separation | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12677
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Recovery of tritium released into working areas in nuclear fusion plants is a key issue for safety. A large volume of air in the last confinement of fusion power plants should be processed by air cleanup system (ACS). In ACS, tritium gas is oxidized by catalysts, and then tritiated water vapor is collected by adsorbents. This method can remove tritium effectively, whereas high throughput of air causes higher pressure loss in catalyst and adsorbent beds. The pressure loss can be reduced by replacing the packed bed of catalysts with the honeycomb catalysts. In this study, the oxidation experiments of hydrogen in humid gases over honeycomb-type catalysts were performed, and the influence of water vapor on the rate of catalytic oxidation was investigated. The result of the experiments suggests that the rate of catalytic oxidation decreases with increasing water vapor content and its influence varies depends on the temperature. It is also indicated the rate of oxidation substantially decreases at the lower temperatures even in the case where water vapor contents is considerably lower. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the decrease in the catalytic activity by coexistent water vapor.