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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.
J. J. Martínez Caballero, Pablo García Sedano
Nuclear Technology | Volume 83 | Number 3 | December 1988 | Pages 325-333
Technical Paper | Fifth International Retran Meeting / Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34145
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A RETRAN-02 model has been developed for the Cofrentes nuclear power plant, a 2894-MW(thermal) Spanish boiling water reactor 6. The startup and pre-operational tests have been used to perform an extensive qualification of the model. Special attention has been given to the qualification of the control system models, and the emergency response information system station available at Cofrentes has proved to be a very powerful tool to record useful plant data. The tests used in the qualification include recirculation, pressure, and level control system tests, recirculation pump transfer to low speed, one feedwater pump trip, turbine trip, and main steam isolation valve closure. The very good results obtained with the model provide confidence in its future use in plant transient analysis. Several modifications have been made to the qualified model to prepare it for the analysis of abnormal transients. The modifications include improvements in the nodalization, simulation of the emergency core cooling system, and use of separate phase models. The models are at present being used for plant transient evaluation support, independent vendor licensing calculations, qualification of an improved operator training simulator, and studies of potential modifications to setpoints and systems operation for anticipated transient without scram mitigation.
