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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.
Alireza Haghighat, Moussa Mahgerefteh, Bojan G. Petrovic
Nuclear Technology | Volume 109 | Number 1 | January 1995 | Pages 54-75
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A35068
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The methodology used to prepare the source for neutron fluence calculation at the reactor pressure vessel is examined, and its effect on the calculated cavity dosimeter reaction rate is evaluated. Different source distributions for the Three Mile Island Unit 1 and Davis-Besse reactors and a simulated low low-leakage loading pattern are analyzed based on different levels of homogenization, different isotopic averaging approaches, contribution of 238U, use of the LEPRICON C factor formulation, and the SAILOR spectrum. Fuel isotopics can significantly affect the source distributions (through the fission spectrum), thereby leading to uncertainties of ∼7% in the calculated cavity dosimetry reaction rates. Higher uncertainties (>10%) are expected due to both the C factor and fission spectrum when the low low-leakage fuel designs are utilized.
