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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.
Itacil C. Gomes, Donald L. Smith, Edward T. Cheng
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 706-713
Neutronics Experiments and Analysis | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963697
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Current designs of fusion-reactor systems seek to use radiation-resistant, low-activation materials that support long service lifetimes and minimize radioactive-waste problems after decommissioning. Reliable assessment of fusion materials performance requires accurate neutron-reaction cross sections and radioactive-decay constants. The problem areas usually involve cross sections since decay parameters tend to be better known. The present study was motivated by two specific questions: i) Why are the 51V(n,np)50Ti cross section values in the ENDF/B-VI library so large (a gas production issue)? ii) How well known are the cross sections associated with producing 7.4times105 y 26Al in silicon carbide by the process 28Si(n,np+d)27Al(n,2n)26Al (a long-lived radioactivity issue)? The energy range 14–15 MeV of the D-T fusion neutrons is emphasized. Cross-section error bars are needed so that uncertainties in the gas and radioactivity generated over the lifetime of a reactor can be estimated. We address this issue by comparing values obtained from prominent evaluated cross-section libraries. Small differences between independent evaluations indicate that a physical quantity is well known while the opposite signals a problem. Hydrogen from 51V(n,p)51Ti and helium from 51V(n,α)48Sc are also important sources of gas in vanadium, so they too were examined. We conclude that 51V(n,p)51Ti is adequately known but 51V(n,np+d)50Ti is not. The status for helium generation data is quite good. Due to recent experimental work, 27Al(n,2n)26Al seems to be fairly well known. However, the situation for 28Si(n,np+d)27Al remains unsatisfactory.
