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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.
Cliff B. Davis
Nuclear Technology | Volume 90 | Number 3 | June 1990 | Pages 286-293
Technical Paper | RELAP/MOD2 / Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34394
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The possibility of a flow instability in a fuel assembly during a hypothetical loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) in the production reactors at the Savannah River Site (SRS) is currently the subject of many analyses. The Bingham pumps, which circulate flow through the Savannah River reactors, may be susceptible to cavitation because of the decrease in pressure that accompanies a LOCA. Cavitation in the Bingham pumps during a LOCA could reduce the forced flow through the assemblies and thus could promote flow instability. An analysis was performed at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory to aid in the evaluation of the potential significance of cavitation on flow instability. The RELAP5 computer code and a model of the L-Reactor at the SRS were the primary analysis tools. A cavitation model was developed using correlations generated at Savannah River and the RELAP5 control system. Benchmark comparisons were performed between the RELAP5 cavitation model and cavitation tests performed in L-Reactor. Best-estimate calculations of a LOCA initiated by a double-ended guillotine break in the inlet piping to the reactor were then performed for a range of core powers. The LOCA calculations were used to determine the initial core power leading to the onset of cavitation and the effects of cavitation on system response. Cavitation was calculated to occur in the broken loop when the initial core power was >1400 MW. Cavitation did not cause a catastrophic reduction in core flow. The effects of cavitation were self-limiting because of feedback among the pump head, loop flow, and the available and required net positive suction head.