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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.
Toshihiko Ohnuki, Tadao Tanaka, Hiromichi Ogawa, Tadatoshi Yamamoto
Nuclear Technology | Volume 88 | Number 1 | October 1989 | Pages 55-63
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A34336
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The relationship of the retardation factor of a radionuclide for undisturbed soil and that for disturbed soil has been investigated. The migration model is based on the assumption that both reactive (dynamic) and nonreactive (stagnant) sites exist in the soil column. The retardation factor for undisturbed soil is represented by the following equation:Rfu = Su/SdRfd ,where Rfu and Rfd are retardation factors for undisturbed and disturbed soil, respectively, and Su and Sd are degrees of water saturation in undisturbed and disturbed soils, respectively. The migration experiments for both the undisturbed and disturbed soil columns were carried out using 85Sr. The average retardation factor for the undisturbed soil is smaller than that for disturbed soil, and the degree of water saturation in the undisturbed soil column is smaller than that in the disturbed soil column. The retardation factor for the undisturbed soil estimated, based on the above equation, is approximately the same as the measured retardation factor for the undisturbed soil.
