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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.
A Konstantellos, J L Hemmerich, A C Bell, J Mart, J Yorkshades, K Walker, N Skinner, G Jones, F Delvart
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 2 | March 1992 | Pages 365-370
Safety; Measurement and Accountability; Operation and Maintenance; Application | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29772
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The JET Active Gas Handling System (AGHS) consists of a number of interlinked processing systems for recovery of the radioactive tritium, its purification, separation from the other hydrogen isotopes, storage and recycling to the JET machine. To meet the stringent safety requirements and the multiplicity of monitoring, control and operational tasks, a plant-wide process control system was designed to integrate all tritium related functions. The AGH Control system is based on an industrial Distributed Control System (DCS) by Fischer & Porter which was tailored to the specific sequential/batch, closed loop and coordinating needs of the plant. Approximately 3600 Input Output (I/O) points are interfaced to the front-end consisting of 16 processors linked via a dual Ethernet Highway network and fast (0.1 s) 4-loop controllers. Three identical console processors support 6 screens which can access any point of the plant. The system has data-links to PLC's, analytical instrumentation and the JET CODAS network. It was installed in a dedicated control room in 1990 and is now being tested and commissioned. This paper describes the design of the system, the selection of the DCS hardware and the special emphasis which was put on the preparation of the software requirements and documentation.
