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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.
Chien Chung, Cheng-Chang Chan
Nuclear Technology | Volume 110 | Number 1 | April 1995 | Pages 106-114
Fission Reactor | Burnup Credit | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A35100
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Radioactive 16N and 19O in the Tsing Hua Open-Pool Reactor, produced from 16O(n,p)16N and 18O(n,γ)19O reactions, respectively, have been measured using a rapid sampling device and gamma-ray spectroscopic systems. The radioactivity of the 7-s half-life 16N and 27-s half-life 19O in the pool water are monitored in the power range from 1 W to 1 MW. The three-dimensional concentration of these radionuclides in the water coolant is also contour mapped down to the detection limit of 10 Bq/ℓ. The spatial distribution of the short-lived radionuclides in the reactor pool, resulting from both the neutron flux distribution and heat transfer characteristics external to the core, is discussed for reactor operation at various power levels.
