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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 A. Bari
Nuclear Technology | Volume 179 | Number 1 | July 2012 | Pages 35-44
Technical Paper | Special Issue on Safeguards / Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT179-35
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An overview is presented of the objectives, accomplishments, and potential future directions of the program on the evaluation methodology for proliferation resistance and physical protection (PR&PP) of advanced nuclear energy systems. The PR&PP Working Group of the Generation IV International Forum developed the methodology through a series of demonstration and case studies. The results of the evaluations performed with the methodology are intended for three types of users: system designers, program policy makers, and external stakeholders. During the past few years, various national and international groups have applied the methodology to nuclear energy system design as well as to developing approaches to advanced safeguards. We suggest some future applications of the methodology in this paper.
