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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.
Yoichi Sakuma et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 397-400
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Tritium Measurement, Monitoring, and Accountancy | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A952
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
There are three components which contain tritium in the air, i.e. water vapor, molecular hydrogen and methane. However, there is no tritium monitor, which is able to measure the concentration separately. In the light of it, we are developing a new monitor, which will be enable us to measure the tritium concentrations in two of these species, i.e. molecular hydrogen and methane. The specific activities of tritium in molecular hydrogen and in methane are very high. Then if we can collect the hydrogen and the methane, we will easily measure the tritium concentrations. We have conceptually designed a new tritium monitor and carried out several basic experiments. Based on the results of these experiments, we have estimated the performance of the monitor. For an hour counting, the monitor will be able to measure the tritium concentrations of molecular hydrogen and methane using about 4m3 air. Since the total performance of the monitor mainly depends on the capability of the proportional counter, we are developing an appropriate counter.