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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.
Michel Rome, Massimo Salvatores, Jacques Mondot, Michel Le Bars
Nuclear Technology | Volume 94 | Number 1 | April 1991 | Pages 87-98
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A16224
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Spent fuel has been reprocessed in France since the beginning of the French nuclear program. In June 1985, it was decided to recycle plutonium in French pressurized water reactor (PWR) plants. A generic safety report for the Electricité de France 900-MW PWR issued in 1986 demonstrated the feasibility of recycling mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel with a maximum ratio of 30% MOX assemblies in each reload for a total of one-third of the annual core cycle. Between November 1987 and the beginning of 1990, seven MOX reloads were introduced in four reactors. The 2 yr of experience in plutonium reload operations in the French 900-MW PWR is described.
