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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.
Akira Inoue, Masanobu Futakuchi, Makoto Yagi, Toru Mitsutake, Shin-Ichi Morooka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 112 | Number 3 | December 1995 | Pages 388-400
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A35165
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Void fraction measurement tests for boiling water reactor (BWR) simulated nuclear fuel assemblies have been conducted using an X-ray computed tomography scanner. There are two types of fuel assemblies concerning water rods. One fuel assembly has two water rods; the other has one large water rod. The effects of the water rods on radial void fraction distributions are measured within the fuel assemblies. The results show that the water rod effect does not make a large difference in void fraction distribution. The subchannel analysis codes COBRA/BWR and THERMIT-2 were compared with subchannel-averaged void fractions. The prediction accuracy of COBRA/BWR and THERMIT-2 for the subchannel-averaged void fraction was Δα = —3.6%, σ = 4.8% and Δ α = —4.1%, σ = 4.5%, respectively, where Δ α is the average of the difference between measured and calculated values. The subchannel analysis codes are highly applicable for the prediction of a two-phase flow distribution within BWR fuel assemblies.
