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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.
Shigeo Numata, Yasuhiko Fujii, Makoto Okamoto
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 26 | Number 3 | November 1994 | Pages 248-254
Technical Paper | Safety/Environmental Aspect | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A30328
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The catalytic conversion of tritium gas (HT) to tritiated water (HTO) by cement materials is studied by using mortars made of ordinary Portland cement and Portland blast furnace slag cement exposed to HT at concentrations of 3 to 6 × 109 Bq/m3 in air. Within the experimental conditions, no significant difference in the conversion rate is found between the two types of cement. Extended experiments are carried out by using mortars made of ordinary Portland cement to evaluate the catalytic effect of cement materials. The experimental results are explained by a model that assumes that the conversion is dependent on the geometric surface area of the mortars. The mortar surface is found to play an important role in the conversion. The capacity coefficient in mass transfer on the mortar surface and its standard deviation are found to be (4.3 ± 1.4) × 10−11 m/s. The mechanism of the conversion reaction is uncertain in this study. The conversion rate of the catalytic effect by the cement materials is compared with the conversion rate by the radioactive decay of T2. The HTO produced by the conversion is retained in the pore water of the cement materials.
