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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.
Robert Buckingham, Lloyd Brown, Ben Russ, Patrick Lovera, Philippe Carles, Jean-Marc Borgard, Pascal Yvon
Nuclear Technology | Volume 178 | Number 1 | April 2012 | Pages 119-124
Technical Paper | Safety and Technology of Nuclear Hydrogen Production, Control, and Management / Nuclear Hydrogen Production | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A13552
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The performance of hydrogen production via thermochemical cycles is typically evaluated using thermal efficiency. In this study, the sulfur-iodine cycle with heat supplied by a high-temperature reactor (HTR) is analyzed. Two cases are examined: one flow sheet designed by General Atomics in the United States, the other by Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives in France. In each case, HTR helium inlet and outlet temperatures are specified. Differences in these temperature specifications lead to process variations between the flow sheets and in how the hydrogen processes interface with the nuclear heat source. Two principal conclusions result from the analysis. First, the thermal efficiency tends to plateau above a certain outlet helium temperature. This is a characteristic effect of the method of Öztürk et al. for sulfuric acid decomposition. Second, it is clear that it is impractical to discuss efficiencies for the hydrogen process that are independent of defined operating parameters of the HTR.