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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.
Yuri Yoshihara, Etsuko Furuta, Ryu-ichiro Ohyama, Shigeaki Yokota, Yuka Kato, Tomoyuki Yoshimura, Kiyoshi Ogiwara
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 3 | April 2015 | Pages 654-657
Proceedings of TRITIUM 2013 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-T103
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tritium is usually measured by using a liquid scintillation counter. However, liquid scintillator used for measurement will be radioactive waste fluid. To solve this issue, we have developed the method of measuring tritium samples with plasma-treated plastic scintillator sheets instead of liquid scintillator (Plasma method). With the Plasma method of 2-min plasma treatment, we had obtained measurement efficiency of 48 ± 2 % for 2 min measurement of tritium except for tritiated water. On the other hand, it needed almost 6 hours to obtain constant measurement efficiency. We tried putting silica gel beads into vials to remove H2O molecules from PS sheet surface quickly. The silica gel beads worked well and we got constant measurement efficiency within 1-3 hours. Also, we tried using other kinds of PS treated with plasma to obtain higher measurement efficiencies of tritium samples.
