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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.
Howard L. Heinisch, Frederick M. Mann, Donald G. Doran
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 3 | November 1985 | Pages 2704-2707
Technical Paper | First-Wall Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A24691
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Activation calculations were performed f or 27 elements in the STARFIRE, Mirror Advanced Reactor Study (MARS), and GA Technologies, Inc. (GA) conceptual reactor first-wall neutron spectra. In all the spectra, seven of the elements (nitrogen, aluminum, nickel, molybdenum, copper, niobium, and lead) required restrictions on their concentration in a material in order to meet current regulations for near-surface radioactive waste disposal. For nickel, molybdenum, and niobium in the spectra of MARS and GA, however, the activation levels are two to five times lower than in STARFIRE. Multistep reactions were found to have only a small effect on the limits for these seven elements.
