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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.
S. L. Robinson, N. Y. C. Yang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 2 | March 1992 | Pages 856-860
Material; Storage and Processing | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29856
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effects of internal tritium and helium on the tensile properties of two austenitic stainless steels and an iron-based superalloy have been studied. The materials tested were, forged 21Cr-6Ni-9Mn and 304L (tested in the annealed condition and two forged conditions), and a modified A-286 alloy. The accumulation of 3He from the radioactive decay of tritium caused an increase in the yield strength and a continuous decrease in the ductility in almost all materials tested. Increased 3He concentrations also caused a change in fracture mode from ductile rupture to predominantly intergranular fracture. The property changes resulted from 3He bubble-induced strengthening, which produced a change in deformation mode from long-range dislocation activity to deformation twinning. In the deformation-twinning mode, the 3He-accelerated fracture initiated at the intersections of deformation twins with grain boundaries. High-strength forged 304L was most resistant to 3He effects, owing to the redistribution of 3He on dislocations.
