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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.
M. R. Ioan, G. Bubueanu, C. S. Tuta
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 76 | Number 3 | April 2020 | Pages 291-296
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2020.1711850
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper reports the results of radiological measurements taken for the last 3 years in the controlled area and adjacent zone of the Tritium Laboratory of the the Horia Hulubei National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Magurele. The radiological characterization has been performed by determination of total and removed tritium contamination for the following surfaces: pavement, walls, windows, radiochemical tables, radionuclide fume cupboards, glove boxes, and sinks. The fixed tritium contamination does not present representative radiological risk because beta particles emitted by tritium are unable to penetrate the skin. The removed tritium contamination represents that component of the total surface contamination that can be taken by mechanical processes. The removed contamination was analyzed as a priority because it represents the main radiological risk factor in tritium laboratories. The determination of surface contamination has been carried out by scanning of the analyzed surfaces using an LB 1230 UMo tritium surface monitor with an LB 1230 detector and by a smear test using extruded polystyrene smears followed by measurement of the removed activity with a liquid scintillation counter. The total surface contamination values, obtained by scanning, were below the detection limit of the equipment, except for radiochemical hood surfaces. The removed tritium contamination determined values are in the domain of 5 … 450 Bq/dm2. At the department level, the obtained values for surface tritium contamination are at the background level.