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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.
Hesham Khater, Lucile Dauffy, Shiva Sitaraman, Sandra Brereton
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 2 | August 2009 | Pages 697-701
Nuclear Analysis | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-697
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Evaluation of the prompt dose environment expected in the National Ignition Facility (NIF) during Deuterium-Deuterium (D-D) and Tritium-Hydrogen-Deuterium (THD) shots have been completed. D-D shots resulting in the production of an annual fusion yield of up to 2.4 kJ (200 shots with 1013 neutrons per shot) are considered. During the THD shot campaign, shots generating a total of 2x1014 neutrons per shot are also planned. Monte Carlo simulations have been performed to estimate prompt dose values inside the facility as well as at different locations outside the facility shield walls. The Target Chamber shielding, along with Target Bay and Switchyard walls, roofs, and shield doors (when needed) will reduce dose levels in occupied areas to acceptable values during these shot campaigns. The calculated dose values inside occupied areas are small, estimated at 25 and 85 rem per shot during the D-D and THD shots, respectively. Dose values outside the facility are insignificant. The nearest building to the NIF facility where co-located workers may reside is at a distance of about 100 m from the Target Chamber Center (TCC). The dose in such a building is estimated at a fraction of a rem during a D-D or a THD shot. Dose at the nearest site boundary location (350 m from TCC), is caused by skyshine and to a lesser extent by direct radiation. The maximum off-site dose during any of the shots considered is less than 10 nano rem.