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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. Miyamoto et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 54 | Number 1 | July 2008 | Pages 265-268
Technical Paper | Environment and Safety | doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1809
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A six-compartment metabolic model for tritium accumulation by bivalves was developed and validated using two observed data sets supplied in an international IAEA program for validation of environmental models, EMRAS (Environmental Modeling for Radiation Safety, 2003-2007). The data observed were presented in scenarios for model prediction of temporal change of HTO and OBT concentrations in Barnes mussels (Elliptio complanata). In the Uptake Scenario, mussels were transplanted from a site with background tritium concentrations into a lake, which has historically received tritium inputs over time from upgradient waste management areas. Another data set was presented in the Depuration Scenario for model prediction of the temporal decrease in HTO and OBT concentrations in the mussels following transplantation from the lake into another lake with significantly lower tritium levels. The model simulation was able to reproduce the observation that the amount of hydrogen taken from sediment was very small compared with that taken from lake water.
