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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.
James P. Adams, Corwin L. Atwood
Nuclear Technology | Volume 94 | Number 3 | June 1991 | Pages 361-371
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A15814
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requires utilities to determine the response of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) to a steam generator tube rupture (SGTR) as part of the safety analysis for the plant. The SGTR analysis includes assumptions regarding the presence of fission product iodine in the reactor coolant resulting from iodine spikes. To get a better understanding of iodine spiking, reactor trip and associated radiochemistry data were collected from 26 PWRs. These data were compared against validation criteria to determine their applicability to an investigation of the magnitude of an iodine spike following a reactor trip. The applicable data and the results of a statistical analysis are presented. Conclusions are made from this analysis of iodine spiking following reactor trips concerning the magnitude of a spike during an SGTR and compared with the NRC analysis criteria. The conclusion is then made that the iodine release rate expected during an SGTR, on the basis of the analysis of the data base, is much less (by a factor of 15 or more) than that specified by the NRC for analysis of this accident type.
