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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.
Mark S. Jarzemba
Nuclear Technology | Volume 124 | Number 1 | October 1998 | Pages 82-87
Technical Paper | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT98-A2910
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method is described to estimate the heat generation rate of various high-level waste (HLW) forms composed primarily of either a sludge (with a composition similar to that in the Hanford HLW tanks) or borosilicate glass. The main heat source is from radioactive decay and subsequent self-absorption of particles emitted from 137Cs, 90Sr, or their radioactive daughters contained in the waste form. The heat generation rate of the waste form is usually an important parameter in safety and performance assessments and will likely be a part of the specifications required for the vitrified waste. The heat generation rate depends on the size of the waste because larger waste forms will tend to absorb a greater fraction of the gamma radiation from 137mBa decays (a short-lived radioactive daughter of 137Cs). Because beta radiation from these two nuclides is short ranged (only a few tenths of a millimetre in water), assumption of complete self-absorption of beta radiation is justifiable. Previous work in this area estimated upper and lower bounds for the volume-averaged heat generation rate per litre of waste based on total (i.e., large-sized waste forms) and zero (i.e., small-sized waste forms) self-absorption of gamma radiation emitted from 137mBa. This analysis extends the previous work to more adequately estimate the heat generation rate of intermediate-sized waste forms based on the composition of the waste (either borosilicate glass or a simulated sludge), and the size of the waste as characterized by the surface-area-to-volume ratio. The analyses are based on runs of the MCNP version 4A code.