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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.
Houlung Lee*, Edward S. Kenney
Nuclear Technology | Volume 100 | Number 1 | October 1992 | Pages 70-78
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT92-A34754
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
By introducing wide-aperture detectors, the efficiency of the conventional Compton scatter imaging technique can be greatly improved. A Monte Carlo method has been developed to investigate the imaging process of this enhanced Compton imaging technique. Using this technique, a conceptual design of a pipe inspection system has been completed. This system features the use of dual wide-aperture detectors and a photon source of two energy components. In practice, a source of more than two energy components is allowed. With this inspection system, the inner surface contours of the pipe can be reconstructed in a rather straightforward manner, and the inner surface can be fully mapped. The measured data together with the associated geometry parameters such as size and curvature will serve to provide a two- or three-dimensional contour mapping of the pipe.