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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.
Drew E. Kornreich
Nuclear Technology | Volume 181 | Number 2 | February 2013 | Pages 282-302
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A15784
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This work involved estimating the homogeneous metal-water mixture critical mass curves of 34 fissionable nuclides from thorium to einsteinium. Calculations were performed using the discrete ordinates code PARTISN with ENDF/B-VII.0 69-group cross sections. Sample MCNP5 test cases indicate reasonable agreement between the two transport codes. In general, the results confirmed that there are three "forms" of the critical mass curves: (a) the traditional curve most well known as characterizing the "big 3" nuclides (233U, 235U, 239Pu), where the minimum critical mass is found in a dilute solution; (b) a simple monotonic curve characterized by a monotonically increasing critical mass as water is added to the metal, where the minimum critical mass is a metal system; and (c) a hybrid curve where the shape is similar to the traditional curve but the minimum critical mass is the pure metal. In general, the traditional and monotonic curves follow the "odd-even" rule of thumb that a nuclide with an even Z and an odd A or vice versa will have a traditionally shaped curve and that the other nuclides will have a monotonically shaped curve. The violations of this rule of thumb, i.e., the hybrid curves, in the set of nuclides analyzed are comprised of 232U and 252Cf. Plutonium-236 is especially interesting because it is a traditionally shaped curve with the minimum critical mass in a relatively dilute solution, but it violates the "odd-even" rule of thumb.