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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.
James C. Mailen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 83 | Number 2 | November 1988 | Pages 182-189
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34159
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The degradation products produced in Purex solvent by exposure to nitric acid and radiation can be divided into two groups: those that are removed by scrubbing with sodium carbonate solutions and those that are not; the latter materials are called long-chain degradation products. This paper describes investigations using activated alumina for removal of these long-chain degradation products from first-cycle, Savannah River Plant and Idaho Chemical Processing Plant solvents that had been previously washed with sodium carbonate solution. Activated alumina was found to be very effective for improving the phase separation of the solvent from the sodium carbonate solutions, increasing the interfacial tension, and removing components that complex plutonium. It was less effective for removing anionic surfactants and ruthenium. The capacity of the activated alumina for treating 30% tri-n-butyl phosphate solutions was greatly improved by drying the solvent before treatment.
