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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.
Hongsuk Chung, Do-Hee Ahn, Kwang-Rag Kim, Seungwoo Paek, Minsoo Lee, Sung-Paal Yim, Myunghwa Shim
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 1 | July 2009 | Pages 141-147
Tritium, Safety, and Environment | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A8891
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tritiated gas and water should be properly treated to minimize an environmental tritium emission in nuclear fusion research facilities. Tritiated gas is usually treated in two steps: it is first oxidized to a tritiated water vapor by a catalyst and then the vapor is adsorbed in a molecular sieve drier. We have used a 1wt.% Pt/SDBC polymer catalyst and Zeolite 13X for the tritiated gas removal system. We confirmed that the decontamination factor of the equipment was more than 100 under a gas flow rate of 90 liters/hr and at a temperature of 65-80 °C.Furthermore we have developed a tritiated organic liquid treatment process. We have used a 0.5wt.% Pd/Al2O3 catalyst to oxidize an organic liquid. The simulated organic liquid was converted to water by over 99%. We have also developed a small scale CECE (Combined Electrolysis and Chemical Exchange) process by combining an LPCE (Liquid phase Catalytic Exchange) catalytic column with SPE (Solid Polymer Electrolyte) electrolysis. The experimental results of the CECE process produced a decontamination factor of 13-20. We used the electrolyte Nafion 117 which was coated with Pt as a cathode catalyst and IrO2 as an anode catalyst. We also tested a palladium alloy membrane for a purification of the hydrogen in the detritiation process.