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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.
Michael Täschner, Claus Bunnenberg, Werner Gulden
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 20 | Number 1 | August 1991 | Pages 58-64
Technical Paper | Safety/Environmental Aspect | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29643
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It is important in the design of future fusion reactors and associated facilities that incorporate passive safety to take account of the possible environmental impact of accidental tritium release. Reliable information on dose consequences can be obtained by evaluating urine samples from persons exposed to tritium. Translating the results of the environmental HT experiment performed in France in 1986 into worst-case exposure conditions, the effective dose equivalent to an individual with highest exposure at a distance of 800 m (typical for site boundaries) is ∼1 × 10−4 Sv per gram of tritium emitted as HT when inhalation and skin absorption are considered. From this value, maximum permissible amounts of accidentally released HT can be derived on the basis of regulatory or anticipated dose limits. A comparison to a tritium release in the form of HTO shows that there is no fixed factor that can be used to convert the dose consequences of an HT release into those of a corresponding HTO release. The factor ranges from at least 10 for worst-case conditions to ∼70.
