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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.
Khalid A. Al-Hussan, Tien-Ko Wang, Mohamed A. Obeid
Nuclear Technology | Volume 85 | Number 2 | May 1989 | Pages 238-244
Technical Paper | Technique | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A34244
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Gamma-ray heating rates from 60Co and 137Cs are measured independently in a stainless steel sphere using thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) with different sensitivities and atomic numbers, a useful check on dosimetric measurements. Gamma-ray dose-weighting f factors, based on the general cavity ionization theory, are applied to convert the net TLD dose rates into gamma-ray heating rates in stainless steel. Gamma-ray spectra are calculated using the ANISN computer code together with the DLC-41/VITAMINC cross-section library. The experimental and the calculated gamma-ray heating rates are compared. The calculation-to-experiment (C/E) ratios of the heating rates are close to unity at experimental positions near the gamma-ray source and show drop-off at far positions. This C/E discrepancy comes primarily from the calculations; however, there is a minor contribution to the C/E discrepancy from the TLD overresponse at low gamma energies.
