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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.
Hans-Werner Wiese
Nuclear Technology | Volume 102 | Number 1 | April 1993 | Pages 68-80
Technical Paper | Mixed-Oxide Fuel / Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A34803
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Based on the use of the Joint Evaluated File (JEF-1) with the KARBUS burnup code system and subsequent KORIGEN code calculations, the characteristics of spent pressurized water reactor mixed-oxide (MOX) fuels are analyzed. Actinide masses, decay heat, radioactivities, and radiation are discussed for burnups of 40 to 55 GWd/tonne HM for MOX fuels based on natural uranium and on uranium tailings. Multiple plutonium recycling is considered at a burnup of 50 GWd/tonne HM. The results are compared with earlier data at a burnup of 33 GWd/tonne HM. The high-exposure MOX fuels are found to contain large amounts of the heat-releasing and radiating nuclides, 238Pu and 244Cm. The 238Pu in the plutonium, which is to be used for the fabrication of fuel elements from recycled MOX, requires special shielding or a change from glove box techniques to an automated treatment.
