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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.
Keith Searson, Fabrice Fleurot, Andrew Cooper, Pat Cowan
Nuclear Technology | Volume 175 | Number 1 | July 2011 | Pages 259-263
Technical Paper | Special Issue on the 16th Biennial Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division / Radiation Transport and Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A12297
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A computer-aided design (CAD) import and tracking system, OiNC, has been developed that is currently being incorporated into the MONK and MCBEND criticality and shielding codes. The system enables analysts to take advantage of the advanced geometry modeling capabilities provided by the solid CAD modelers Autodesk Inventor and Solidworks. Various tracking acceleration techniques are implemented in order to reduce calculation time, including the full or partial automatic conversion of the CAD model to constructive solid geometry (CSG) form. For the criticality benchmark model detailed here, the overall calculation run time for a CAD-based geometry was found to be just 14% longer than an equivalent text-based CSG model. OiNC uses analytical surface descriptions, with full NURBS support, avoiding the approximations and problems associated with meshing. However, meshed models can still be imported and tracked, enabling shielding and criticality calculations to be performed, for example, on impact simulated finite element models.
