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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.
Viorel Fugaru, Cristian Postolache, Maria Gheorghe, Lidia Radu, Nastasia Saca
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 71 | Number 3 | April 2017 | Pages 286-289
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1293444
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The study was conducted in order to determine the immobilization performance of low-level tritium waste in new cement mixtures. The grouts analyzed are fine mortars, fluid, self- compacting, with flowability, able to fill the smallest gaps in the solid waste container. The grouts curing showed compact and structural integrity without pores and cracks, so as to ensure radioactive tritium waste encapsulation.
Two types of solid/liquid tritium radioactive waste with known tritium activity have been prepared: one type containing a hydrophilic tritium compound and the other one a hydrophobic tritium compound.
The tritium waste was mixed with three different types of grout and poured in a cylindrical mould. The leaching of tritium from waste solidified/encapsulated in the cement mixtures immersed in an aqueous environment has been studied in order to select the most appropriate grout type as waste immobilization matrix.
Samples from the liquid surrounding the cements blocks were collected at predetermined time intervals and placed in the liquid scintillation cocktail and measured. The activity of the tritium released was then calculated.
