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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.
Hans-Jürgen Engelmann
Nuclear Technology | Volume 121 | Number 2 | February 1998 | Pages 148-161
Technical Paper | German Direct Disposal Project | doi.org/10.13182/NT98-A2827
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In its resolution of January 1, 1985, the federal government of Germany deemed it necessary to develop, complementary to reprocessing, the direct disposal of spent fuel. The Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Bau und Betrieb von Endlagern für Abfallstoffe was in charge of the implementation of demonstration tests aimed at proving the state of engineering readiness and planning of different repository concepts.Several repository alternatives (borehole emplacement, drift emplacement) including different waste packages, cooling times, and technical equipment, etc., were compared. As a result, a reference and a backup concept were elaborated and subsequently examined in detail. Temperature calculations were carried out for a site-independent case and for a case using the working model of the Gorleben salt dome, which displays a horizontal cut of the geological structure of the salt dome.The demonstration tests were intended for confirming technical feasibility under realistic conditions. They comprised simulation tests for shaft transport of heavy loads, handling tests of drift disposal, and active handling experiments with neutron sources.
