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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.
Erbang Hu, Maoshuan Zhang, Shoushu Wang, Zhanrong Gao, Rentai Yao, Naixian Pan, Jiayi Chen, Zhong Chen, Jinsong Qiao, Huaide Zhang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 124 | Number 1 | October 1998 | Pages 1-17
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT98-A2905
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Qinshan nuclear power plant (NPP) is one of China's nuclear power bases. An atmospheric experiment concerning siting of Qinshan NPP phase II is outlined and described. Hourly meteorological data were taken for 1 yr (from October 31, 1991 to October 31, 1992) at five different heights of a 100-m-high tower. Observations using a low-altitude radiosonde and a lost balloon were made for 40 days at three sites to measure the variance of turbulence at different heights and different distances from the coast. The diffusion parameters of the phase II site were measured using photographs of the plume and flight tests of the balance balloon. A wind tunnel simulation test was done to modify the influence of buildings on the diffusion parameters under D stable conditions. Synchronous low-altitude-wind, temperature, and surface-wind-field observations were made at three sites (phases I, II, and III) during September and October 1995 to provide a basic date for siting phase III. A method to estimate the annual atmospheric dispersion factor for a new site (phase III) using the available 1 yr of hourly meteorological observation data for an operating NPP (phase I) based on a meteorological correlation experiment is presented.
