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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.
Alireza Sedaghat, Frank S. Castellana, Robert H. Hsu, Robert B. Macduff
Nuclear Technology | Volume 80 | Number 3 | March 1988 | Pages 360-370
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34060
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Diversion cross flow was characterized from a two-subchannel simulation of a nuclear fuel assembly using a gamma camera. The gamma camera allowed external monitoring over the length of the test assembly, thereby eliminating experimental problems associated with flow partitioning and an isokinetic withdrawal system, allowing the possibility of noninvasive measurement. The experiment was performed by providing fixed but different flow rates to each subchannel. The higher mass flow rate stream was traced with a gamma-emitting radionuclide, 99mTc pertechnetate. Activity in each subchannel was measured by the camera. Diversion length was found to be relatively small and strongly dependent on gap spacing. Effective lateral velocity through the gap was also evaluated. With some exceptions, the results were in good agreement with the predictions of the subchannel analysis computer code COBRA IIIC. At a high inlet axial mass velocity ratio of 4, however, the agreement with the prediction was poor.
