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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.
Cynthia L. Stokes, Robert E. Buxbaum
Nuclear Technology | Volume 98 | Number 2 | May 1992 | Pages 207-216
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT92-A34676
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In pressurized heavy water nuclear reactors of the type standardly used in Canada (Canada deuterium uranium-pressurized heavy water reactors), the zirconium alloy pressure tubes of the core absorb deuterium produced by corrosion reactions. This deuterium weakens the tubes through hydrogen embrittlement. Thin palladium coatings on the outside of the zirconium are analyzed as a method for deuterium removal. This coating is expected to catalyze the reaction D2 + ½O2 ⇄D2O when O2 is added to the annular (insulating) gas in the tubes. Major reductions in the deuterium concentration and, hence, hydrogen embrittlement are predicted. Potential problems such as plating the tube geometry, neutron absorption, catalyst deactivation, radioactive waste production, and oxygen corrosion are shown to be manageable. Also, a simple set of equations are derived to calculate the effect on diffusion caused by neutron interactions. Based on calculations of ordinary and neutron flux-induced diffusion, a palladium coating of 1 × 10-6 m is recommended. This would cost approximately $60 000 per reactor unit and should more than double reactor lifetime. Similar coatings and similar interdiffusion calculations might have broad applications.
