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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.
Tatsuhiko Uda, Kenji Okuno, Yuji Naruse
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 2 | March 1992 | Pages 436-441
Safety; Measurement and Accountability; Operation and Maintenance; Application | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29784
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To study application of laser Raman spectroscopy for fusion fuel gas analysis by an in situ method, methane (CH4) and tritium (T2) mixed gases were measured. In the mixed gases, hydrogen isotope exchange reactions were induced by beta decay, and various isotopic hydrogens and methanes were produced. Spectral peaks of v1 and v3 bands were detected individually for CH4 and four tritiated methanes. The v1 bands between 1700–1900 cm−1 were selected as suitable ones for quantitative analysis. After mixing T2 and CH4 gases, while large amounts of tritiated methanes were produced as time lapsed, the equilibrium state was not reached by the time 1000 h had passed. It was presumed that the isotope exchange reactions were very slow compared to mixed gases of just hydrogen isotopes.