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The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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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.
Josée Perfettini
Nuclear Technology | Volume 115 | Number 2 | August 1996 | Pages 153-161
Technical Paper | Characterization of Radioactive Waste in France / Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35261
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A neutronic method based on neutron thermalization by hydrogen nuclei is used to measure the moisture content in packages of radioactive waste embedded in hydraulic binders. The two steps of the measurement are (a) acquisition of the neutron characteristics of the embedded waste considered (or of a chemically similar material) and (b) the measurement itself obtained with a neutron moisture meter. The neutron characteristics required are the adsorption and diffusion cross sections ∑a and ∑d for thermal neutrons of the dried material. These two parameters are used to calculate the calibration curve (valid only for the material considered) as follows:N = (α·Ds + β)Hυ + γ·Ds + δ,which allows the counting N of the neutron moisture meter to be converted into free-water content Hv (α, β, γ, and δ are deduced from ∑a and ∑d; Ds is the dry density of the material). The neutron moisture meter (containing a fast neutron source and a thermalized neutron detector) is portable. Measurements are taken at various depths in a core hole made in the package to draw a water profile. The measurements are taken in materials used for waste solidification and in active or inactive packages. The results obtained (free-water content) are in good agreement with those obtained by determining the weight loss at 120°C (the differences between these two measurements are generally ∼10% when the free-water content is ∼20 to 25 %). The water profiles allow one to detect the presence of excessive free water.