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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.
Ken Nakajima, Masanori Akai
Nuclear Technology | Volume 113 | Number 3 | March 1996 | Pages 375-379
Technical Note | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35217
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To investigate the accuracy of the neutronic calculations in various neutron spectra, the modified conversion ratios [(MCR): ratio of 238U capture rate-to-total fission rate] of four kinds of light water-moderated UO2 fuel lattices were measured. In the measurements, the relative reaction rates of 238U capture and total fission were obtained from the nondestructive gamma-ray spectrometry of 239Np and 143 Ce, respectively, which accumulated in the fuel rod irradiated at the Tank-Type Critical Assembly. The moderator-to-fuel volume ratios Vm/Vf of the measured lattices were 1.50 (undermoderate) to 3.00 (overmoderate). The measured MCRs were 0.477 ± 0.014(Vm/Vf = 1.50), 0.434 ± 0.013(1.83), 0.383 ± 0.011(2.48), and 0.356 ± 0.011(3.00), respectively. The Monte Carlo calculation employing the JENDL-3 library showed good agreement with the experiments for all the cores, although they showed a tendency of overestimation for larger values of MCR, as shown in the case of UO2 tight lattices. Therefore, it was concluded that, for the cores investigated, the accuracy of the neutronic calculation method currently used was very good.
