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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.
Mark L. Crowder, James E. Laurinat, John A. Stillman
Nuclear Technology | Volume 176 | Number 2 | November 2011 | Pages 309-313
Technical Paper | Radiation Measurements and General Instrumentation | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A13305
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A straightforward method to determine the tritium content of Zircaloy-2 cladding hulls via oxidation of the hulls and capture of the volatilized tritium in liquids has been demonstrated. Hull samples were heated in air inside a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). The TGA was rapidly heated to 1000°C to oxidize the hulls and to release absorbed tritium. To capture tritium, the TGA off-gas was bubbled through a series of liquid traps. The concentrations of tritium in bubbler solutions indicated that nearly all of the tritiated water vapor was captured. The average tritium content measured in the hulls was 19% of the amount of tritium produced by the fuel, according to ORIGEN2 isotope generation and depletion calculations. Published experimental data show that there is an initial, nonlinear oxidation rate for Zircaloy-2 followed by a faster, linear rate after "breakaway" of the oxide film and that the linear rate follows an Arrhenius model. This study demonstrates that the linear oxidation rate of Zircaloy samples at 974°C is faster than predicted by the extrapolation of data from lower temperatures.