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Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.
Lingfeng He, Clarissa Yablinsky, Mahima Gupta, Jian Gan, Marquis A. Kirk, Todd R. Allen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 182 | Number 2 | May 2013 | Pages 164-169
Technical Paper | Special Issue on the Symposium on Radiation Effects in Ceramic Oxide and Novel LWR Fuels / Materials for Nuclear Systems | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A16428
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To gain an understanding of gas bubble transport in oxide nuclear fuel, this paper uses polycrystalline CeO2, composed of both nanograins and micrograins, as a surrogate material for UO2. The CeO2 was implanted with 150-keV Kr ions up to a dose of 1 × 1016 ions/cm2 at 600°C. Transmission electron microscopy characterizations of small Kr bubbles in nanograin and micrograin regions were compared. The grain boundary acted as an efficient defect sink, as evidenced by smaller bubbles and a lower bubble density in the nanograin region as compared to the micrograin region.
