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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.
James T. Cronin, Kord S. Smith
Nuclear Technology | Volume 100 | Number 2 | November 1992 | Pages 174-183
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT92-A34740
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A methodology for homogenization and functionalization of one-dimensional cross sections for RETRAN has been developed and encoded into the SIMULATES and SLICK computer programs. The method relies on the SIMULATE-3 nodal reactor analysis code to provide accurate solutions of the three-dimensional neutron diffusion equation in two energy groups. The process of producing the required data involves two distinct problems: (a) the spatial homogenization of the three-dimensional cross sections and diffusion coefficients into one-dimensional variables and (b) the functionalization of the one-dimensional data in terms of the feedback variables of coolant density, fuel temperature, and control fraction. The homogenization method is based on equivalence theory and preserves the eigenvalue and one-dimensional planar reaction rates of the three-dimensional solution. The functionalization of the homogenized cross sections is accomplished by performing analogous one-dimensional state calculations with the RETRAN thermal-hydraulic models and then fitting to the RETRAN feedback variables. The methodology has been verified by comparing the results of one-dimensional calculations performed with the one-dimensional cross sections to three-dimensional calculations. Close agreement between the one- and three-dimensional results has been demonstrated.