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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. Torikai, R.-D. Penzhorn
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 3 | April 2015 | Pages 615-618
Proceedings of TRITIUM 2013 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-T93
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Type 316 stainless steel specimens loaded with tritium either by exposure to 1.2 kPa HT at 573 K or submersion into liquid HTO at 298 K showed characteristic thin surface layers trapping tritium in concentrations far higher than those determined in the bulk. The evolution of the tritium depth profile in the bulk during heating under vacuum was non-discernable from that of tritium liberated into a stream of argon. Only the relative amount of the two released tritium-species, i.e. HT or HTO, was different. Temperature-dependent depth profiles could be predicted with a one-dimensional diffusion model. Diffusion coefficients derived from fitting of the tritium release into an evacuated vessel or a stream of argon were found to be (1.4 ± 1.0)×10-7 and (1.3 ± 0.9) × 10-9 cm2/s at 573 and 423 K, respectively. Polished surfaces on type SS316 stainless steel inhibit considerably the thermal release rate of tritium.
