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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.
Yasushi Nomura, James L. Anderson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 87 | Number 4 | December 1989 | Pages 912-925
Technical Paper | TMI-2: Decontamination and Waste Management / Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A27685
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The refill phenomena occurring from 200 to 217 min of the Three Mile Island Unit 2 accident were analyzed by using measurement data including the reactor coolant system (RCS) pressure and the pressurizer level. At 200 min, the high-pressure injection (HPI) system began to inject water into the RCS, resulting in a primary system depressurization due to steam condensation; and the pressurizer water drained into the reactor vessel, increasing the liquid level at the core. It is believed that the core was completely covered by water by ∼207 min, when the pressurizer level decrease and the RCS depressurization stopped. Continued HPI resulted in increasing hot-leg water levels; and the pressurizer level began to increase at ∼210 min, when water reached the level of the surgeline entrance to the hot leg. Analysis of the refill assuming uniform liquid levels in the RCS fails to predict the observed phenomena. A set of equations describing the refill phenomena and accounting for compression of noncondensable gases has been derived from theoretical considerations, and solutions for water levels throughout the RCS have been obtained to correctly predict the phenomena occurring during the refill period.