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Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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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.
Matthew P. Simones, Veera R. Gutti, Ryan M. Meyer, Sudarshan K. Loyalka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 176 | Number 2 | November 2011 | Pages 211-226
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT10-10
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The role of charge on aerosol evolution and hence the nuclear source term has been an issue of interest, and there is a need for both experimental techniques and modeling for quantifying this role. Our focus here is on further exploration of a tandem differential mobility analyzer (TDMA) technique to simultaneously measure both the size and charge (positive, negative, and neutral) dependent aerosol distributions. We have generated graphite, gold, silver, and palladium nanoparticles (aerosol) using a spark generator. We measure the electrical mobility-size distributions for these aerosols using a TDMA, and from these data we deduce the full charge-size distributions. We observe asymmetry in the particle size distributions for negative and positive charges. This asymmetry could have a bearing on the dynamics of charged aerosols, indicating that the assumption of symmetry for size distributions of negatively and positively charged particles in source term simulations may not always be appropriate. Also, the experimental technique should find applications in measurements of aerosol rate processes that are affected by both particle charge and size (e.g., coagulation, deposition, and resuspension), and hence in modeling and simulation of the nuclear source term.