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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.
Masayuki Yamada, Mikio Enoeda, Takashi Honma, Takumi Hayashi, Yuji Matsuda, Kenji Okuno
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 28 | Number 3 | October 1995 | Pages 1376-1381
Design, Operation, and Maintenance of Tritium System | Proceedings of the Fifth Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology In Fission, Fusion, and Isotopic Applications Belgirate, Italy May 28-June 3, 1995 | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30604
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Tritium Process Laboratory (TPL) at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) has been operated with tritium for the R&D activity of the fusion fuel cycle since March 1988. The maximum amount of tritium which was permitted in TPL is 6 × 105 Ci. The concept of triple confinement is applied to the safety system of TPL and their detritiation systems based on the catalytic oxidation-molecular sieve adsorption process. The average tritium release to the environment is 15 mCi/month since TPL has been under operation with tritium, which is 1/200 smaller than the regulation value. The safe operation of TPL has been giving useful information on the operation and improvement for fusion safety systems. This paper presents the operation and improvement experience on the safety system at TPL with accumulated failure data.
