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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.
Shih-Jen Wang, Chien-Sheng Chien, Te-Chuan Wang, Kwang-Sheng Chiang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 132 | Number 2 | November 2000 | Pages 196-205
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3138
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The MELCOR code, developed by Sandia National Laboratories, is a fully integrated, relatively fast-running code that models the progression of severe accidents in commercial light water nuclear power plants (NPPs).A specific station blackout (SBO) accident for Kuosheng (BWR-6) NPP is simulated using the MELCOR 1.8.4 code. The MELCOR input deck for Kuosheng NPP is established based on Kuosheng NPP design data and the MELCOR users' guides. The initial steady-state conditions are generated with a developed self-initialization algorithm. The main severe accident phenomena and the fission product release fractions associated with the SBO accident were simulated. The predicted results are plausible and as expected in light of current understanding of severe accident phenomena. The uncertainty of this analysis is briefly discussed. The important features of the MELCOR 1.8.4 are described. The estimated results provide useful information for the probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) of Kuosheng NPP. This tool will be applied to the PRA, the severe accident analysis, and the severe accident management study of Kuosheng NPP in the near future.
