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The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.
Chin-Jang Chang, Chien-Hsiung Lee, Wen-Tang Hong, Lance L. C. Wang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 143 | Number 1 | July 2003 | Pages 65-76
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3398
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A passive core cooling system (PCCS) has been installed at the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research Integral System Test facility. It includes three core makeup tanks (CMTs), three accumulators (ACCs), a four-stage automatic depressurization system (ADS), a passive residual heat removal (PRHR) heat exchanger submerged into an in-containment refueling water storage tank (IRWST). The purpose of this research is to study the performance of the PCCS with passive injection during either a pressure balance line (PBL) break or a direct vessel injection (DVI) line break. Five experiments were performed simulating break area ratios of 0.5 to 2.0% (1.88 to 3.77 mm) at either a PBL or a DVI line. The general system response and the interactions of CMT, ACC, PRHR, and IRWST to the effect of core heat removal are observed and discussed. The experimental results show long-term core cooling can be reached for the cases of the PBL break and the DVI-line break following the PCCS actuation procedures.
