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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.
O. A. Griesbach, J. R. Stencel
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 1199-1202
Tritium Release Experiment | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25302
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An international tritium model validation experiment was held at Chalk River, Canada, during June 1987. The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) Differential Atmospheric Tritium Sampler (DATS) was one of the many types of tritium samplers used for this experiment. Besides the modeling data that were produced from this experiment, we learned how well our tritium samplers performed when a known tritium quantity was released. The DATS were set up at 50, 100, 200, and 400 meters downwind from the release point. Data were collected during the release period and for the next 24 hours. While the units worked very well in the field, valued operational experience was gained in the recovery of the tritium from the silica gel. Because of delays in the analysis of the collected samples, it became difficult to recover the HTO fraction quantitatively. Indications are that molecular sieve is more suitable for samples which are not going to be processed immediately. This paper reports on the field set up, the measurement results, and operational experience in the use of the DATS.
