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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. Kumar, M.A. Abdou, M.Z. Youssef, Y. Ikeda, C. Konno, Y. Oyama, K. Kosako, F. Maekawa, H. Maekawa
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 2180-2189
Blanket Shield and Neutronic | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A30043
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Measurements of long-lived radioactivity are required to generate reliable data-base for qualifying fusion materials for reactor applications. However, long half lives necessitate intense 14 MeV neutron source, long irradiation time, long cooling time, and long counting time under low background. A 32h12m long irradiation, at mean source neutron intensity of 1.13 × 1012 n/s, was carried out on a number of foil packages kept near rotating neutron taiget source at FNS under USDOE/JAERI collaborative program in June 1989. Four identical foil packages were kept at 0, 45, 90, and ∼115 degrees to the d+ beam. Each package contained foils of Ag, Al, Dy, Hf, 151Eu, 153Eu, Hf, Ho, Ir, Mo, Re, Tb, and W. The objective was to measure decay γ radioactivity from 108mAg, 26Al, 158Tb, 152Eu, 150Eu, 94Nb, 186mRe, 178m2Hf, 192mIr, and 166mHo, among others. The half lives of these products range from 13.3y (152Eu) to 0.72My (26Al). These foils were interspersed with dosimetric foils of Nb and Zr. An estimated average fluence of ∼0.83 × 1015 n/cm2 (range: 0.47–1.65.1015 n/cm2) was obtained for the foil-package at zero degree. After cooling times ranging from 1.3 to 2 years, γ-spectroscopy of some of these foils has been completed. Analysis of measurements, done on foil package at zero degree, has been carried out using four radioactivity codes, REAC-2, DKRICF, ACT4 (THIDA-2), and RACC. REAC-2 is the only code that has data for most of the observed products; RACC has data for Al, Mo and W products only. Ratio of computed to experimentally measured activities varies from 4.10−5 to 377. Major update of all four cross-section libraries is recommended as waste classification of many fusion specific materials is likely to change dramatically.
