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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, Suh-Chyn Jeng
Nuclear Technology | Volume 105 | Number 3 | March 1994 | Pages 447-456
Technical Paper | Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT94-A34943
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A plant analyzer was developed for the Kuosheng power station, based on the AD-100 peripheral processor system. To analyze a transient from partial power conditions, the initial steady-state conditions must be generated in advance. A self-initialization algorithm for generating the initial partial power conditions has been developed. The initialization of the rated power conditions is performed first. The self-initialization algorithm then simultaneously adjusts important plant variables, such as the reactor power, dome pressure, downcomer level, feedwater temperature, and core flow, to the desired partial power conditions from the rated conditions with the aid of existing plant control systems and four extra control loops. This algorithm was developed and encoded in the Kuosheng plant analyzer. The initialization for a recirculation pump trip test at 68% of rated power demonstrates the success of this algorithm. The initial conditions generated can be saved and used for transient analysis. Tedious and time-consuming trial-and-error initialization procedures are eliminated. This methodology improves the accuracy and consistency of transient calculations for partial power conditions.