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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.
G. Prillinger, A. Fischer, Eva Fischer, H. Krause
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 2 | Number 2 | April 1982 | Pages 301-312
Technical Paper | Shielding | doi.org/10.13182/FST82-A20762
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Results of discrete ordinates radiation transport calculations are presented for the proposed tokamak ignition and bum control experiment ZEPHYR. As a first step, baryte concrete with 0.15 wt% B4C was identified as an optimum concrete for the shielding fitting tightly around the torus and some attached devices. This shielding material with a maximum thickness of 70 em allows personnel to enter the experiment hall just a few hours after termination of a worst-case bum discharge sequence. Inside the vacuum vessel, delayed dose rates amount to several tens of rem/h after only 50 s of plasma bum for waiting times that are typical for maintenance and repair, thus, remote handling equipment is required. Bootstrapped radiation transport calculations for neutral beam injectors show them to be strongly activated after the worst-case discharge sequence with typical dose rates of some rem/h. Thus shielding is required around the injector boxes and most repair tasks have to be performed remotely. Delayed dose rates outside the torus shielding in front of typical straight diagnostic ducts with diameters of 15 to 25 em are shown to be significant but “hands-on” maintenance of the diagnostic equipment will be possible with some restrictions on working time.