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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.
Jeffrey W. Ray, Albert B. Reynolds
Nuclear Technology | Volume 91 | Number 3 | September 1990 | Pages 394-403
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34460
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effect of various antioxidants and antioxidant concentrations on the room-temperature radiation stability of ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) and cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) materials used as insulation for electric cable in nuclear power plants is measured. Relative elongation to rupture between aged and unaged material is used as the measure of stability. The materials are irradiated to doses up to 2.0 MGy (200 Mrad) at a dose rate of 300 Gy/h (3 x 104 rad/h) in the Cobalt-60 Gamma Irradiation Facility at the University of Virginia. Several of the antioxidants in EPDM perform well to the maximum doses for which reliable data were obtained of either 1.0 or 1.6 MGy. An XLPE material with Agerite™ MA antioxidant performs well to the maximum dose for which reliable data were obtained of 1.0 MGy. Stabilization at 1.0 MGy increases with increasing antioxidant concentration, though not in proportion to the concentration.
