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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.
M. Nakagawa, T. Mori, K. Kosako, Y. Oyama, Y. Ikeda, C. Konno, H. Maekawa, T. Nakamura, M. A. Abdou, E. F. Bennett, M. Z. Youssef, T. Yule
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 28 | Number 1 | August 1995 | Pages 39-55
Technical Paper | Fusion Neutronics Integral Experiments — Part I / Blanket Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30400
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The neutron source characteristics of the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI)/U.S. Department of Energy collaborative program on fusion neutronics Phase-IIA and -IIB experiments are determined by measuring neutron spectra and various activation rates in the cavity and on the inner surface of the enclosure and the test regions. The analyses are performed by both JAERI and the United States using individual nuclear data and transport codes. The neutron spectra are generally well predicted by both Monte Carlo and Sn calculations in the energy range of 15 MeV to a few kilo-electron-volts, except for energies 10 to 1 MeV. The discrepancies between the measured and the calculated activation rates are within ±10% when recently evaluated nuclear data are used. Through the present investigation, the characteristics of incident neutrons in the test region can be satisfactorily predicted.
