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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.
Bernard R. Bandini, Anthony J. Baratta, Victor R. Fricke
Nuclear Technology | Volume 81 | Number 3 | June 1988 | Pages 370-380
Technical Paper | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A16058
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Since the March 1979 accident, the source range monitors (SRMs) at Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) have been reading several orders of magnitude higher than would be expected in a normal shutdown core. A study in which these anomalous SRM readings are analyzed and the cause determined is reported. Here, the DOT 4.3 two-dimensional transport code was used to simulate the SRM response and the response of an axial string of solid-state track recorders by modeling the neutronics of the damaged TMI-2 core. This modeling has indicated the presence of ∼10 tonnes of fuel material in the lower vessel plenum, a condition that was subsequently verified by direct observation. The computational model, the method of cross-section preparation, and an analysis of the various core neutron sources are described, as well as the results obtained from this effort.
