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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.
J. Gomez del Rio, J. Sanz, S. Reyes, J. F. Latkowski
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | March 2001 | Pages 1008-1012
Safety and Environment | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963374
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Estimating radiological risks is an essential part of an assessment of fusion as an attractive source of energy. Due to the limited data specific to radionuclides of interest to fusion reactors, one of the goals of this work is to expand the Dose Conversion Factors (DCF) library for use in the calculation of different types of off-site doses and associated health effect consequences. This expansion accounts for about 300 radionuclides included in accidental activity releases from HYLIFE-II and SOMBRERO IFE Power Plants. Furthermore, for each of the radionuclides included in the new DCF library, we address a parametric study of accident consequences by varying the atmospheric stability, wind speed, rain conditions, and thermal plume rise. The results of these calculations allow us to identify the most troublesome radionuclides in terms of safety consequences as well as the impact of the different atmospheric scenarios.
