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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.
Shih-Jen Wang, Chun-Sheng Chien, Jung-Yuh Jang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 103 | Number 1 | July 1993 | Pages 131-137
Technical Note | Reactor Operation | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A34836
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To apply fast and accurate simulation techniques to Taiwanese nuclear power plants, plant analyzer technology was transferred to Taiwan from the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) through a cooperative program. The Chinshan plant analyzer was developed based on the BNL boiling water reactor plant analyzer. The simulation speed of the Chinshan plant analyzer is eight times faster than real time. The detail analysis process of the turbine trip transient is demonstrated. The self-initialization procedure automatically generates the desired plant conditions. These plant conditions are saved in a file and read directly for the simulation. The simulation is started by inputting the start time of the turbine trip from the keyboard of a personal computer. The simulation results are shown instantaneously on the screen of a Micro-VAX II workstation. A comparison of the calculated system response with the plant data indicates good agreement. The sequence of events is also close to that of the test result.
