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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.
Y. Ikeda, A. Kumar, C. Konno, K. Kosako, Y. Oyama, F. Maekawa, H. Maekawa, M. Z. Youssef, M. A. Abdou
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 28 | Number 1 | August 1995 | Pages 74-98
Technical Paper | Fusion Neutronics Integral Experiments — Part I / Blanket Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30402
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To meet urgent requirements for data validation, an experimental analysis has been carried out for isotopic radioactivity induced by deuterium-tritium neutron irradiation in structural materials. The primary objective is to examine the adequacy of the activation cross sections implemented in the current activation calculation codes considered for use in fusion reactor nuclear design. Four activation cross-section libraries, namely, JENDL, LIB90, REAC*63, and REAC*175 were investigated in this current analysis. The isotopic induced radioactivity calculations using these four libraries are compared with experimental values obtained in the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute/U.S. Department of Energy collaborative program on fusion blanket neutronics. The nine materials studied are aluminum, silicon, titanium, vanadium, chromium, MnCu alloy, iron, nickel, niobium, and Type 316 stainless steel. The adequacy of the cross sections is investigated through the calculation to experiment analysis. As a result, most of the discrepancies in the calculations from experiments can be explained by inadequate activation cross sections. In addition, uncertainties due to neutron energy groups and neutron transport calculation are considered. The JENDL library gives the best agreement with experiments, followed by REAC*175, LIB90, and REAC*63, in this order. Clear suggestions for a future direction to improve the overall calculation accuracy are developed based on the current experimental analysis.
