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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.
Satoshi Fukada, Shigenori Suemori
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 441-445
Other Concepts and Assessments | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13460
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A system to utilize high-temperature nuclear heat effectively is proposed here. The system comprises a High-Temperature Gas-cooled nuclear Reactor (HTGR), reaction vessels to produce H2 using the steam-reforming reaction of CH4 or the Iodine-Sulfur (I-S) process, chemical heat pumps and He gas turbines. The chemical heat pumps are operated between the two decomposition temperatures of SO3 (~900°C) and HI (~500°C) of the I-S process. The pump system transfers heat from lower temperature to higher one with repeated H2 absorption-desorption cycles, and the overall thermal conversion ratio from H2O to H2 can be enhanced. The material candidate for H2 absorption in heat pump is considered TiH2 and ZrCoH3 (or UH3) according to the two reaction temperatures. The decomposition of the metal hydrides proceeds at their respective plateau pressures that are a function of temperature regardless of the H content in metals. Variations of the temperature and the equilibrium H2 pressure with repetitions of the heat-pump cycle are shown in the present paper comparatively. In addition, proton-conducting fuel cell system supplied with CH4 is incorporated in the high-temperature utilization system.
