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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.
W. James Boatwright, David W. Hiltbrand, Whee G. Choe
Nuclear Technology | Volume 121 | Number 3 | March 1998 | Pages 289-294
Technical Paper | RETRAN | doi.org/10.13182/NT98-A2840
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
TU Electric has developed and obtained U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approval of the methodologies required to support core reload safety analyses. The Electric Power Research Institute-sponsored computer codes RETRAN-02 and VIPRE-01 are used in the non-loss-of-coolant-accident thermal-hydraulic analyses. These methods were employed to support the loading of the core of the Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station, Unit 1 (CPSES-1), Cycle 5.An overview of the reload safety analysis development effort is provided, with the focus on the qualification of the system transient analysis methodologies. Interactions with the NRC are described. Included is a discussion of the types of questions asked by the NRC and the corresponding TU Electric responses. Comparisons of calculated results to actual plant data which demonstrate the validity of the CPSES plant model, are provided. The importance of performing "good" benchmark comparisons is addressed as it relates to the demonstration of technical competence in the use and interpretation of RETRAN.The effectiveness of the approach used by TU Electric to obtain NRC approval of the reload safety analysis methodology is examined in retrospect. Finally, an assessment is made of the benefits, tangible and intangible, derived from having an in-house reload safety analysis capability.
