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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.
D. H. Meikrantz, J. D. Baker, G. L. Bourne, R. J. Pawelko, R. A. Anderl, D. G. Tuggle, H. R. Maltrud
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 27 | Number 2 | March 1995 | Pages 14-18
doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A11963799
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A zirconium alloy getter-based tritium monitoring and collection system has been designed, built, and subsequently operated for three years at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. The system is automated to provide separation of tritium from 41Ar, collection of tritium on an hourly basis, unloading of getters for on-line tritium measurement via an ion chamber, and recollection of tritium on removable getters for daily assay in the laboratory. Three different SAES Getters alloys are employed to purify the gas stream (St 909), and separate the tritium from Ar and collect the tritium for measurement (St 727 and St 707). This system has demonstrated on-line tritium measurements as low as 20 μCi per sample with typical decontamination factors from 41Ar of 107. In addition, laboratory studies aimed at the recovery of tritium from graphitic targets have demonstrated further process applications for these getters. Prototypical gas cooled reactor targets, containing encapsulated 6Li, were irradiated at the Advanced Test Reactor at this laboratory. Samples were then heated to high temperatures to allow diffusive release of the tritium into a flowing helium stream. St 909 purifier and St 727 collector getters have been employed to demonstrate an efficient tritium recovery process.