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Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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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.
Giuseppe Agelao, Maria Carmela Romano, Francesco Italiano
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 38 | Number 2 | September 2000 | Pages 224-237
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST00-A144
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this research, the effect of the shape of hydrogen-loaded palladium elements on exothermic reactions between gases is shown. It was found that an element with parts of its surface next to each other spontaneously triggers reactions, whereas an element whose surfaces are not next to each other needs outside triggering. The heat developed makes the temperature of the elements rise even by a few hundredths of a degree centigrade.Through photographic techniques, it was shown that the elements, when releasing heat, emit radiation connected to nuclear fusion reactions. These reactions, confirmed also by the analysis of the used hydrogen, showed helium formation. All these tests have confirmed the reproducibility of the phenomenon.