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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.
Francesco Scaffidi-Argentina, Mario Dalle Donne, Claudio Ronchi, Claudio Ferrero
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 33 | Number 2 | March 1998 | Pages 146-163
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A25
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new computer code, called ANFIBE (ANalysis of Fusion Irradiated BEryllium), has been developed to describe the most important processes (diffusion, gas precipitation, bubble coalescence, helium-bubble trapping, chemical trapping, etc.) thought to affect gas behavior and swelling in beryllium during fast neutron irradiation. The new model allows the prediction of helium and tritium redistribution, induced swelling, and release. The relevant effects occurring in irradiated beryllium under steady or transient temperature conditions have been considered from a microscopic (lattice and subgranular volume elements), structural (metallographic features of the material), and geometrical (specimen design parameters) point of view.The main results of this validation work represent the second part of the presentation of this model. The relevant beryllium properties published in the literature are presented and critically examined. The performance of the code is assessed by comparing the code predictions with a large set of published experimental data on swelling and gas release in beryllium under fast neutron irradiation.
