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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. Kotoh, M. Tanaka, T. Sakamoto, Y. Nakamura, Y. Asakura, T. Uda, T. Sugiyama
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 54 | Number 2 | August 2008 | Pages 415-418
Technical Paper | Isotope Separation | doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1843
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For the purpose of developing an effective system for hydrogen isotope separation, we have been studying the adsorption-desorption dynamic behavior of hydrogen and deuterium in a packed-bed column with synthetic zeolites, aimed at applying the pressure swing adsorption process. The adsorption behavior of molecules in the packed-bed is reflected in the breakthrough curves. To understand the characteristic behaviors of hydrogen isotopes in the packed-bed, we carried out breakthrough experiments in a conventional adsorption process and in a practical process following sequential processes alternating between adsorption and desorption. From the former experiments, the results were obtained that the overall mass transfer was influenced by longitudinal dispersion relating to the superficial velocity and that the process governing the mass transfer within adsorbents was diffusion in the macro-pores of pellets. In the latter experiments, unique profile breakthrough curves were observed. These curves can be described with the numerical simulation assuming the initial distributions in a packed-bed.