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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.
Christophe Poussin, Alain Holcblat
Nuclear Technology | Volume 112 | Number 1 | October 1995 | Pages 108-121
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A15856
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Thermal stratification may be responsible for the development of severe cracks in the feedwater line of steam generators in pressurized water reactors, leading Framatome to carry out an experimental program especially dedicated to this problem. This developmental program analyzes the mechanisms and the driving parameters of thermal stratification. It develops and qualifies an antistratification device to prevent thermal stratification at the steam generator feedwater nozzle location. The program also compares on-site measurements with mockup results. The outcome of the experimental program is a qualified helical antistratification device to be installed in the thermal sleeve of the steam generator feedwater nozzle. As required, this device significantly reduces thermal stratification effects in the feedwater system, even in very low feedwater flow conditions.
