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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.
Liang Shi, J. Michael Doster, Charles W. Mayo
Nuclear Technology | Volume 127 | Number 1 | July 1999 | Pages 24-37
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT99-A2981
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To estimate the range of impact velocities of potential reactor loose parts (LPs) requires information on regional flow velocities, LP mass, and LP drag coefficients. Flow velocities and the mass of potential LPs can generally be bounded and therefore are assumed to be known. In this work, drag coefficients for prototype LP shapes, including objects such as bolts, nuts, pins, and hand tools, were measured in the fluid velocity range typical of reactor coolant systems. Unlike drag coefficients measured for stationary objects, or by moving a body through a stagnant fluid, these experiments are performed on objects moving freely in a turbulent flow stream. In general, the measured drag coefficients for all tested LP shapes are shown to be close to the standard drag coefficient for a sphere, especially in the low-Reynolds-number region. However, significant differences exist in the wake transition region, which indicates that the drag coefficient for a freely moving body in turbulent flow is different from the drag coefficient for a confined body under the same flow conditions or for a body moving in a stagnant fluid.