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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.
Hangbok Choi, Won Il Ko, Myung Seung Yang, Ihn Namgung, Bok-Gyun Na
Nuclear Technology | Volume 134 | Number 2 | May 2001 | Pages 130-148
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT01-A3191
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Direct Use of spent Pressurized water reactor fuel In Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactors (DUPIC) fuel-handling technique has been investigated through a conceptual design study to estimate the unit cost that can be used for the DUPIC fuel cycle cost calculation. The conceptual design study has shown that fresh DUPIC fuel can be transferred to the core following the existing spent-fuel discharge route, provided that new fuel-handling equipment, such as the manipulator, opening/sealing tool of shipping casks, new fuel magazine, new fuel ram, dryer, gamma-ray detector, etc., are installed. The reverse path loading option is known to minimize the number of additional pieces of equipment for fuel handling, because it utilizes the existing spent-fuel handling equipment, and the discharge of spent DUPIC fuel can be done through the existing spent-fuel handling system without any modification. However, because the decay heat of spent DUPIC fuel is much higher than that of spent natural uranium fuel, the extra cooling capacity should be supplemented in the spent-fuel storage bay. Based on the conceptual design study, the capital cost for DUPIC fuel handling and extra storage cooling capacity was estimated to be $3 750 000 (as of December 1999) per CANDU plant. The levelized unit cost of DUPIC fuel handling was then obtained by considering the amount of fuel that will be required during the lifetime of a plant, which is 5.13 $/kg heavy metal. Compared with the other unit costs of the fuel cycle components, it is expected that DUPIC fuel handling has only a minor effect on the overall fuel cycle cost.
