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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.
Rudolf Seiler, Rakesh Chawla, Kurt Gmür, Helmut Hager, Hans-Dieter Berger, Roland Böhme
Nuclear Technology | Volume 80 | Number 2 | February 1988 | Pages 311-323
Technical Paper | Advanced Light Water Reactor / Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34054
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Comparisons of calculated and measured neutron balance components are reported for the 7.5% fissile plutonium reference test lattice of the PROTEUS—light water high conversion reactor (LWHCR) phase II program, both wet (with H2O) and dry (100% void). Special experimental techniques have been developed and applied, particularly for k∞, and the range of directly measured reaction rate ratios has been extended. For the two cell codes tested, WIMS-D/1981 library and KARBUS/KEDAK-4, specific shortcomings have been identified; the new measurements have been found to be significantly more representative and accurate than the earlier phase I experiments. The k∞, void coefficient for the phase II reference lattice between 0 and 100% void has been found to be qualitatively different from those assessed for the earlier phase I test lattices. Consideration of the individual void coefficient components show this to be largely a consequence of the more LWHCR-representative fuel rod diameter and plutonium isotopic composition of the fuel currently being used. Results of control rod studies conducted for the phase II reference lattice—both wet and dry—serve to illustrate the efforts being made toward investigations of special power reactor features.