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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.
C. J. Caldwell-Nichols, M. Glugla, L. Dörr, U. Berndt
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 216-219
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Decontamination and Waste | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A915
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The PETRA facility at the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK) has finished its useful life and the glove box and auxiliary systems are being refurbished. During the lifetime of PETRA the glove box became contaminated with a small amount of tritium but the source has not been positively identified. Removing large redundant components would be hazardous as this would require removing the glove box panels and thus exposing the inner surfaces to moist air which would release tritium. Over several months defined amounts of water have been introduced into the glove box daily which has liberated significant quantities of tritium which has subsequently been absorbed by the in-built tritium retention system. This technique has slowly reduced the tritium liberated at each step. The large components, such as a getter bed, catalyst bed and a permeator, have been detritiated as far as possible in-situ in readiness for disposal once it is safe to remove them from the glove box.