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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.
Brian J. Laundy, Owen N. Jarvis
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 24 | Number 2 | September 1993 | Pages 150-160
Technical Paper | Experimental Device | doi.org/10.13182/FST93-A30221
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A simple computer model of the Joint European Torus (JET) tokamak has been constructed, using the neutron transport code McBEND, to assist in the interpretation of point neutron source data used for empirical calibrations of fission chambers placed near the tokamak to measure the total neutron emission from deuterium and deuterium-tritium plasmas, A satisfactory simulation of the experimental data using a 252Cf neutron source is obtained. In particular, the preferential moderation and absorption of 252Cf neutrons, compared with plasma neutrons, resulting from the buildup of equipment around the tokamak in recent years is demonstrated; this differentiation between neutron sources is a consequence of the use of a concrete filler in the spaces between the toroidal field (TF) coils. An unexpected increase in detector response is explained by the substitution of Freon for water as the TF coil coolant. Finally, the McBEND calculations are found to predict correctly the relative responses of both 235U and 238U fission chambers to 2.5- and 14-MeV plasma neutrons.
