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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.
Kazuyuki Takase, Tomoaki Kunugi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 645-650
Safety and Environment (Poster Session) | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963687
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The dust mobilization in the vacuum vessel under the Loss-of-Vacuum-Accident (LOVA) event was measured quantitatively using the preliminary LOVA apparatus. The particle size distributions in the mobilized dust were characterized and analyzed using a high performance optical-microscope and image analysis software. It was found that around 10% of the initial dust weight was transported upward inside the VV when the breach located at the roof of the VV and an incoming flow from the outside through the breach directly hit the dust. On the other hand, the transported dust weight was less than 1% of the initial dust weight when the breach position was at the side wall of the VV and an incoming flow from the outside indirectly hit the dust. The relationship between the dust mobilization and breach position was clarified from the present experimental results.