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Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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April 3–5, 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.
Robert P. Martin, Bahram Nassersharif
Nuclear Technology | Volume 91 | Number 3 | September 1990 | Pages 297-310
Technical Paper | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34454
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A paradigm for best-estimate diagnosis of reactor transients has been developed. The theoretical approach is based on a modified assumption-based truth maintenance system (ATMS). By incorporating a conflict resolution strategy using expert confidence levels, ATMS is extended. Several software experiments were performed to assess validity of the theory. The software experiment included features for uncertainty management, multiple failure diagnosis in real time, and retrieval of appropriate emergency operating guidelines for accident mitigation. The software experiments demonstrated plausible results for loss of feedwater, loss-of-coolant accident, anticipated transient without scram, and steam generator tube rupture transients.
