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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.
G. L. Varsamis, D. Steiner, M. J. Embrechts
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 1974-1978
Neutronic | Proceedings of the Ninth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Oak Brook, Illinois, October 7-11, 1990) | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29631
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This work presents the analysis of neutron streaming through a tungsten-based shield, modelled as a set of interconnecting tungsten plates, cooled by an aqueous lithium salt solution. The plates are connected with right-angle bends, and then merge to a stainless-steel casing. Discrete neutron streaming paths exist through the right-angle connections and through the stainless steel joints. The analysis was performed in one and two dimensions, with discrete ordinates codes, and in three dimensions with a Monte Carlo code. The results indicate clear streaming paths, both behind ducts and also in cases were materials with very different neutron mean free paths are connected. The neutron flux was observed to peak behind the stainless-steel joints, when compared to adjoining tungsten shield sections. Streaming through the right-angle connections between tungsten plates was limited. The discrete ordinate codes (with low order quadrature sets), generally underestimated the neutron streaming. Higher order approximations required extensive computing time approaching that of the Monte Carlo analysis.