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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.
Yongdeok Lee, Jung Won Lee, Joo-Hwan Park
Nuclear Technology | Volume 179 | Number 1 | July 2012 | Pages 97-105
Technical Paper | Special Issue on Safeguards / Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A14070
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The evaluation of proliferation resistance on the DUPIC fuel cycle was performed using the International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO) user manual. The user manual was finally published from INPRO as a tool for proliferation resistance evaluation. Five user requirements were well organized under one basic principle, and each evaluation parameter for each user requirement has criteria for qualitative and quantitative evaluation for an innovative nuclear system. The DUPIC fuel cycle is to fabricate CANDU fuel from spent pressurized water reactor fuel by use of a dry thermal process without separating the stable fission products. The DUPIC process and fabricated fuel have very intense radiation background and a low amount of fissile plutonium and uranium. The DUPIC fuel cycle has a number of intrinsic features that enhance proliferation resistance. The number of assemblies in the DUPIC process to get 1 significant quantity is very large ([approximately]48 assemblies). The assessment results using the user manual show that the DUPIC fuel cycle is very strong against nuclear proliferation by the material property itself and the facility condition. Additionally, several suggestions and conditions were made to increase the proliferation resistance for innovative future nuclear energy system.