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The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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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.
K. Michael Goff, Alfred Schneider, James E. Battles
Nuclear Technology | Volume 102 | Number 3 | June 1993 | Pages 331-340
Technical Paper | Enrichment and Reprocessing System | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A17032
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The reprocessing of spent fuel from the Integral Fast Reactor is to be accomplished with a pyrochemical process employing molten LiCl-KCl salt covering a pool of cadmium. An examination of this system demonstrates that cadmium metal is soluble to a small extent in this salt and that it diffuses through the salt covering and vaporizes at the surface. The cadmium is soluble in the salt because of either chemical or physical solubility, both of which are dependent on the salt’s surface tension. Mixing increases the vaporization rate of the cadmium by increasing its transport to the salt surface. The cadmium vapors can therefore be reduced by decreasing the mixing conditions, by choosing a salt with a higher surface tension so that the cadmium is less soluble, or by decreasing the temperature of the system, thereby lowering the vapor pressure of the cadmium.