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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.
J. T. Gill, R. E. Ellefson, R. P. Paulick, C. M. Colvin, R. L. Yauger, E. E. Johns, R. L. Anderson, E. L. Lewis, P. H. Lamberger, R. E. Vallee
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 876-883
Tritium Properties and Interactions with Material | Proceedings of the Third Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion and Isotopic Applications (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 1-6, 1988) | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25245
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A recent tritium inventory imbalance at Mound required an investigation into its causes. Much tritium was found as HTO in unsuspected zeolite traps of a T-purification system. Isotopic exchange from ammonia was postulated as a mechanism for entry of T into the zeolitic water. Gases from a T-processing system which had experienced air in-leakage were shown, by trapping of condensibles, to contain substantial H-isotopic waters and ammonias. Further evidence for tritiated ammonia was inferred from changes in pressure and T purity in otherwise unperturbed tanks of N2 and (H/D/T)2. From two such tanks which held N2 and T2 at equilibrium, ammonia was trapped and decomposed; a preliminary equilibrium constant for N2 + 3T2 ⇔ 2NT3 was determined. Controlled experiments by laser Raman spectrometry are in progress to investigate N2/T2 equilibria and kinetics. Results for gas mixtures in the 60–130 kPa (500–1000 torr) range (per reactant) suggest that the forward rate and the equlibrium attained are α [T2]2 . G-values for NT3 production were ≈1–2 molecules atm-1 (T2) (100eV)-1. Self-decomposition of NT3 proceded in an exponential decay with a G = 15–30. A lower value was observed at pressures where β--absorption in the gas was poor.