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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.
J. Richard Smith, John J. King, J. Wiley Davidson, Morris E. Battat
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 23 | Number 1 | January 1993 | Pages 51-67
Technical Paper | Blanket Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST93-A30119
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An experiment to measure the multiplication of 14-MeV neutrons in bulk beryllium has been completed. The experiment consisted of determining the ratio of 56Mn activities induced in a large manganese bath by a central 14-MeV neutron source, with and without a beryllium sample surrounding the source. The superior isotropy and flat energy response of the manganese bath gives this detector an advantage over the inhomogeneous and anisotropic detector arrays used in previous experiments for measurements of this type. Values of the multiplication have been obtained for beryllium samples of four thicknesses. The measurements are affected by several systematic effects characteristic of the manganese bath. The values of these systematic corrections are established by a combination of calculation and experimental parameterization. Detailed calculations of the multiplication and all the systematic effects are made by using a highly detailed three-dimensional Monte Carlo geometry model with the MCNP Monte Carlo program. The Young-Stewart and the ENDF/BVI evaluations for beryllium are used in the analysis. Both data sets produce multiplication values that are in excellent agreement with the manganese bath measurements for both raw and corrected values of the multiplication. It is concluded that there is no real discrepancy between experimental and calculated values for the multiplication of neutrons in bulk beryllium.
