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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.
Koji Oishi, Yujiro Ikeda, Chikara Konno, Tomoo Nakamura
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 18 | Number 2 | September 1990 | Pages 291-309
Technical Paper | Shielding | doi.org/10.13182/FST90-A29301
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The principal components of concrete were irradiated by 14-MeV neutrons for measurement of their induced activities to verify the activation calculation code THIDA-2 and its related cross-section library CROSSLIB. The observed radioactive nuclides, whose half-lives range from minutes to years, were 28Al, 29Al, 27Mg, 44K, 41Ar, 56Mn, 42K, 24Na, 43K, 48Sc, 47Sc, 47Ca, 46Sc, 54Mn, and 22Na, Experimental and calculated results were compared. Good agreement was obtained within ±20%, for 28Al, 56Mn, 42K, 24Na, 48Sc, 47Ca, 46Sc, and 54Mn with well-estimated production cross sections. Large differences were also observed, however, ranging in value from −50 to +100%, for the other nuclides. The cross-section values near 14 MeV for these nuclides were replaced with the cross-section data measured at the Fusion Neutronics Source at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. Recalculation was performed using the newly estimated group cross sections derived from these data, and agreement between experiment and calculation was improved to within ±20%. From this experimental study, it was proved that the uncertainties of the activation cross-section values could satisfactorily explain the discrepancies of the induced activity calculation.
