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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.
Yuji Torikai, Ralf-Dieter Penzhorn, Masao Matsuyama, Kuniaki Watanabe
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 177-181
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Decontamination and Waste | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-4
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
One conceivable option for the disposal of tritium-contaminated stainless steel consists in its storage at ambient temperature in a purged containment. To assess this option several stainless steel 316 specimens, previously loaded at elevated temperatures with 0.8-8.5 MBq of tritium, were flushed continuously with dry argon (water partial pressure 0.073 Pa) for extended periods of time. The released tritium (more than 99 % in the form of tritiated water (HTO)) was collected in bubblers and monitored periodically by liquid scintillation counting. After an initial fast liberation a fairly constant rate of the order of 0.2 % per day established. Tritium depth profile in the SS specimens could be simulated by a diffusion limited desorption model. The rate determining step for tritium release appears to be bulk diffusion.
