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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.
Jean-Pierre Leveque, Bernard Andre, Gérard Ducros, Gilles Le Marois, Gilbert Lhiaubet
Nuclear Technology | Volume 108 | Number 1 | October 1994 | Pages 33-44
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT94-A35041
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Between 1983 and 1989, the Fuel Behavior Studies Branch of the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique-Grenoble performed eight tests in the HEVA (helium and vapor) program. This program, which is a part of the general French Institute for Nuclear Protection and Safety program concerning severe accident studies, is devoted to the measurement of fission product (FP) release rates under severe accident conditions. Each test was performed with a small section (three pellets) of a standard pressurized water reactor fuel rod in its original cladding, heated in a high frequency furnace, at temperatures up to 2300 K, in a steam and hydrogen environment. The volatile FP release rates were measured by gamma spectrometry. Posttest examinations supplied further information about the behavior of the FP, mainly concerning the aerosol sizing and the chemical speciation of the deposits. The results were compared with those obtained by other laboratories and with the calculated values. The measured release rates are generally lower than those calculated using the CORSOR model. A large influence of the environment is evidenced. The aerosol mean aerodynamic diameter is ∼0.3 µm. The HEVA program is extended by the VERCORS program mainly devoted to low volatile FP release rates and kinetics.
