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Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.
Clay E. Easterly
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 2 | Number 4 | October 1982 | Pages 723-729
Technical Paper | Safety/Environmental Aspect | doi.org/10.13182/FST82-A20811
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fusion power stations utilizing the deuterium-tritium reaction may not result in significantly different occupational radiation exposures than are obtained currently at light water reactor (LWR) stations, even with modest advances in remote control technology. The primary reasons for this observation follow. 1. Mobile activation products will be generated at about twice the rate of LWRs. 2. A significantly greater amount of work in elevated radiation zones is associated with repair and maintenance of not only the blanket and first wall, but also the large number of diagnostic and auxiliary systems required for fusion that are not required for fission. 3. The prevalence of tritium throughout most of the reactor complex and the fuels and materials cycle. Very few specific numbers can be estimated with reasonable certainty at present; however, the general picture of occupational hazards at fusion reactors is slowly taking a rough form.