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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, Kwang-Sheng Chiang, Show-Chyuan Chiang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 146 | Number 2 | May 2004 | Pages 199-205
Technical Note | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3498
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Reactor coolant system (RCS) injection is an important strategy for severe accident management of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) system. Maanshan is a typical Westinghouse PWR nuclear power plant (NPP) with large, dry containment. The severe accident management guideline (SAMG) of Maanshan NPP is developed based on the Westinghouse Owners Group (WOG) SAMG.The purpose of this work is to analyze the RCS injection strategy of PWR system in an overheated core condition. Power is assumed recovered as the vessel water level drops to the bottom of active fuel. The Modular Accident Analysis Program version 4.0.4 (MAAP4) code is chosen as a tool for analysis. A postulated station blackout sequence for Maanshan NPP is cited as a reference case for this analysis. The hot leg creep rupture occurs during the mitigation action with immediate injection after power recovery according to WOG SAMG, which is not desired. This phenomenon is not considered while developing the WOG SAMG. Two other RCS injection methods are analyzed by using MAAP4. The RCS injection strategy is modified in the Maanshan SAMG. These results can be applied for typical PWR NPPs.
