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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.
Gheorghe Ionita, Ioan Stefanescu, Ciprian Bucur
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 71 | Number 4 | May 2017 | Pages 649-653
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1290941
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The platinum on charcoal and polytetrafluorethylene (Pt/C/PTFE) is one of the most active and stable catalyst used for tritium removal from nuclear liquid effluents by isotopic exchange between hydrogen and water. This type of catalyst can be used alone or mixed with hydrophilic packing in so-called “mixed catalytic packing”. The mixed catalytic packing COMPACK CP-001 type has been selected and proposed by ICSI Rm-Valcea, to equip the liquid phase catalytic exchange (LPCE) columns from the future Industrial Tritium Removal from Cernavoda NPP (CTRF). The paper presents significant aspects concerning the manufacture of reproducible and homogenous batches of catalyst. Each preparation (follow: impregnation, drying, mixing, shaping and sintering) is presented and discussed. The main characteristics of Pt/C/PTFE catalyst (surface area; pores volume, metallic area, platinum particle size and SEM images are determined) in order to check the reproducibility and the homogeneity of catalyst batches manufactured by different workers. An automatic system for increasing of the productivity of manufacture has been manufactured and tested. The results of measurements on different batches handmade or automatic manufactured, showed close characteristics. This confirms the reproducibility of catalyst manufacture.
