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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.
Daesik Yook, Sangchul Lee, KunJai Lee, Kyu-Min Song, Soon Hwan Shon
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 54 | Number 2 | August 2008 | Pages 350-353
Technical Paper | Tritium in Fission | doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1829
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In Korea, the Wolsong Tritium Removal Facility (WTRF) is under construction to reduce the amount of tritium present in the moderator and coolant of the CANDU type Wolsong nuclear power plants. Recently, a study on the tritium handling system for recovery of the tritium collected from the WTRF was started. Some tritium would enter the steel of the container walls and subsequently decay to helium. This helium can deteriorate the mechanical properties of the material of the tritium handling system. To evaluate the tritium and helium inventory in the stainless steel wall of this system, the time-dependent diffusion equation was developed, solved and the results are presented in this paper. These results were compared to previous work that evaluated the tritium inventory in the stainless steel wall of 50-L tritium containers. Tritium and helium concentration profiles and the corresponding inventories were evaluated with respect to the various parameters such as exposure time, temperature, and partial pressure. After 24 years, the helium inventory in the wall of the tritium handling system exceeds the tritium inventory.