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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.
H. Y. Khater, M. E. Sawan
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 2112-2116
Blanket Shield and Neutronic | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A30032
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Activation analysis has been performed for the D-3He fueled reactor ARIES-III. The activity, decay heat and biological hazard potential (BHP) have been calculated for the low activation steel (modified HT-9) first wall and shield as a function of time following the reactor shutdown. The total activity produced in the reactor at shutdown is 1549 MCi. The total activity produced in the reactor organic coolant following 30 full power years of operation without reprocessing is 458 Ci. The modified HT-9 shield qualifies for shallow land burial as Class A low level waste. The biological dose rate after shutdown at the back of the outboard shield is too high to allow hands-on maintenance. Burning all the tritium in the plasma chamber results in increasing the radioactivity generated in ARIES-III by 65% to 85% at different times following the reactor shutdown.
