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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.
Ashish Sharma, Jeffrey Brown, Harindra J. S. Fernando
Nuclear Technology | Volume 174 | Number 1 | April 2011 | Pages 18-28
Technical Paper | One-Phase Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A11676
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The flow distribution in a condensate demineralizer vessel of a nuclear power plant is studied using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. The model simulates the flow through the packed resin bed installed in the vessel as well as the exit of flow through the porous resin retention assembly at the bottom of the vessel. The computational model is subsequently revised to assess the impact of a proposed modification to the retention assembly to enhance drainage of the vessel and minimize unwanted resin separation during resin bed regeneration. The subject model has been developed using the ANSYS ICEM CFD meshing tool and the FLUENT 6.3 CFD software as well as associated postprocessing tools. Comparisons of flow patterns in the vessel resin beds prior to and with the modification demonstrate a sharp increase in the flow rate at the end walls of the vessel, thus resulting in accelerated depletion of resin in high-velocity areas and nonuniform consumption of resin inventory. The computational results are also compared with a theoretical analysis of the basic process.