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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.
Ronald E. Wright, Norman Fletcher, Raymond D. Pearsall, Victor E. Sidnev, John H. Bickel, Aldo Vianello
Nuclear Technology | Volume 143 | Number 2 | August 2003 | Pages 241-245
Technical Note | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technologies | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3413
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Ignalina nuclear power plant (NPP) Units 1 and 2 are Soviet-designed, RBMK (Reaktor Bolshoi Moschnosti Kipyashchiy), channelized, large power-type reactors. The original-design electrical capacity for each unit was 1500 MW. Unit 1 began operating in 1983, and Unit 2 was started up in 1987. In 1994, the government of Lithuania agreed to accept grant support for the Ignalina NPP Safety Improvement Program with funding supplied by the Nuclear Safety Account of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). As conditions for receiving this funding, the Ignalina NPP agreed to prepare a comprehensive safety analysis report that would undergo independent peer review after it was issued. The EBRD Safety Panel oversaw preparation and review of the report. In 1996, the safety analysis report for Unit 1 was completed and delivered to the EBRD. Part of the analyses covered anticipated transients without scram (ATWS). The analysis showed that some ATWS scenarios could lead to unacceptable consequences in <1 min. The EBRD Safety Panel recommended to the government of Lithuania that the Ignalina NPP develop and implement a program of compensatory measures for the control and protection system before the unit would be allowed to return to operation following its 1998 maintenance outage. A compensatory control and protection system that would mitigate the unacceptable consequences was designed, procured, manufactured, tested, and installed. The project was funded by U.S. Department of Energy.
