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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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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.
Tomasz Kozlowski, R. Matthew Miller, Thomas J. Downar, Douglas A. Barber, Han Gyu Joo
Nuclear Technology | Volume 146 | Number 1 | April 2004 | Pages 15-28
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3483
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A generalized interface module was developed for coupling any thermal-hydraulic code to any spatial kinetic code. In the design used here the thermal-hydraulic and spatial kinetic codes function as independent processes and communicate using the Parallel Virtual Machine software. This approach helps maximize flexibility while minimizing modifications to the respective codes. Using this interface, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) three-dimensional neutron kinetic code, Purdue Advanced Reactor Core Simulator (PARCS), has been coupled to the NRC system analysis codes RELAP5 and Modernized Transient Reactor Analysis Code (TRAC-M). Consistent comparison of code results for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency main steam line break benchmark problem using RELAP5/PARCS and TRAC-M/PARCS was made to assess code performance.
