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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.
Lainsu Kao, Ping-Hue Huang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 127 | Number 3 | September 1999 | Pages 382-388
Technical Note | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT99-A3008
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The reactor coolant pump locked rotor analysis methodology developed by Taiwan Power Company for application to pressurized water reactors (PWRs) is presented. The proposed locked rotor analysis methodology utilizes two computer codes developed or sponsored by Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI): system transient analysis code RETRAN-02 and fuel rod evaluation code FREY. RETRAN-02 determines the transient system responses and the peak reactor coolant system (RCS) pressure. FREY utilizes the core power and core flow transients generated by RETRAN-02 to evaluate the peak clad temperature (PCT) during the transient. FREY is needed for PCT calculations since the conservative modeling assumptions with respect to the PCT can be different from those with respect to the peak RCS pressure. Both computer codes have been properly qualified by benchmarking against the vendor's results.An asymmetric-flow condition would be developed following the initiation of the locked rotor incident. Although there is no guidance in EPRI's "Reactor Analysis Support Package, Volume 3: PWR Event Analysis Guidelines" for the modeling of incomplete mixing at the downcomer and the lower plenum, it was observed from the sensitivity results that the maximum RCS pressure is very sensitive to the amount of mixing. Thus, a split-core model is required to adequately simulate the asymmetric-flow effect.