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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.
P Hughes
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 2 | March 1992 | Pages 389-394
Safety; Measurement and Accountability; Operation and Maintenance; Application | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29776
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The JET project at Culham, Oxfordshire, UK, part of the Euratom Fusion Programme, is regulated by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution (HMIP) with regard to the holding of radioactive materials and the disposal of radioactive waste. JET has had to justify the holding of radioactive material and their radioactive waste management plans to HMIP. JET have been authorised by HMIP to discharge radioactive waste within limits and under specified conditions in order that national and international radiation dose limits to members of the public are not exceeded. There is an overlying requirement by HMIP that the discharges are limited by the use of the best practicable means (BPM) so that radiation exposures from JET's discharges are kept as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA). The HMIP Inspector has powers under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960 which allow him to inspect JET and carry out any relevant tests or measurements. The Inspector also ensures that JET has an appropriate monitoring programme in order to assess radiation doses in the environment.
