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Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
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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.
Rajiv Bhatnagar, Don W. Miller, Brian K. Hajek, and, John E. Stasenko
Nuclear Technology | Volume 89 | Number 3 | March 1990 | Pages 281-317
Technical Paper | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34368
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An integrated Operator Advisor System (OAS) has been built using generic task methodology. The operator’s activities of plant monitoring, data interpretation, procedure execution, and diagnosis have been implemented as the four generic tasks in the system. The OAS is capable of identifying the abnormal functioning of the plant in terms of threats to safety, preenumerated abnormal events, and deviations from normality. After the identification of abnormal functioning, the system will identify the procedures to be executed to mitigate the consequences of abnormal functioning and will help the operator by displaying the procedure steps and monitoring the success of actions taken. The system also is capable of diagnosing the cause of abnormal functioning. The diagnosis is done in parallel to the task of procedure execution. The system is designed to operate in real time and can change its focus of attention depending on current priorities. The system also is designed to provide defense-in-depth in situations when there are no available procedures or the available procedures cannot be successful. The OAS has been tested with a scenario and a limited number of procedures for abnormal events and safety threats. The system responds as expected according to the procedures and knowledge incorporated in it.