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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.
Michael J. Gaeta, Frederick R. Best
Nuclear Technology | Volume 103 | Number 1 | July 1993 | Pages 19-33
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A34827
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Space nuclear power systems utilize materials and processes that are completely different from terrestrial reactor systems. Therefore, the tools used to analyze ground-based systems are inappropriate for space reactor design and analysis. The purpose of this study was to develop a space reactor transient analysis tool and to apply this tool to scenarios of interest. The scope of the simulation includes the thermal and neutronic behavior of a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor, the electrical and thermal performance of the thermoelectric generators, the thermal dynamics of heat pipe radiators, and the thermal behavior of the coolant piping between major components. The thermal model of the system is explicitly coupled to a momentum model of the primary and secondary coolant loops. A one-dimensional conduction model is employed in all solid component models. The reactor model includes an expression for energy generation due to fission and decay heat. The thermoelectric heat exchanger model accounts for thermal energy conversion to useful electrical output. The two-node radiator heat pipe model includes normal operation as well as limited heat pipe operation under sonic limit conditions. The reactor, thermoelectric heat exchanger, and heat pipe models are coupled explicitly by the coolant piping thermal model. The computer program is used to simulate a variety of transients including reactor power change, degradation of the radiator, and a temporary open circuit condition on the thermoelectrics.