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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.
Steven J. Manson, Dale E. Klein
Nuclear Technology | Volume 108 | Number 3 | December 1994 | Pages 379-386
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT94-A35020
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Transportation of nuclear spent fuel is inevitable over the coming years. However, to ensure the safety of such transport, computational models must be established that are capable of evaluating the thermal characteristics of the containers in which spent fuel is shipped. In an effort to further the development of a satisfactory computational tool, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a numerical algorithm that utilizes a homogeneous equilibrium model to calculate the effects of two-phase water on the thermal performance of the containers. This model has been evaluated in preparation for its incorporation into TEXSAN, the Texas-Sandia thermal-hydraulic analysis program. In this study, a stream function vorticity formulation routine was employed in order to calculate single- and two-phase mass and energy transport in a simple driven cavity configuration. Furthermore, a simulation of boiling heat transfer and natural convection around an idealized hot wire was performed. The temperature, enthalpy, and velocity distributions were determined and compared favorably to experimental and numerical benchmark results. The stream function vorticity formulation of the homogeneous equilibrium model has thus been demonstrated to be a viable predictive tool, capable of analysis of two-phase multimode heat transfer. This establishes the potential for improved spent-fuel transportation analysis, which is required for ensuring the safety of shipping container designs.