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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.
Satoru Tsushima, Shinya Nagasaki, Atsuyuki Suzuki
Nuclear Technology | Volume 118 | Number 1 | April 1997 | Pages 42-48
Technical Paper | Kiyose Birthday Anniversary Special / Enrichment and Reprocessing System | doi.org/10.13182/NT97-A35355
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Photochemical techniques are used for the mutual separation of lanthanide elements. By emitting light from an ultrahigh-pressure mercury lamp to a nitric acid solution that contains fourfold mixtures of lanthanide elements (neodymium, samarium, europium, and gadolinium), (NH4)2SO4, and isopropyl formate, neodymium, samarium, and europium are photoreduced and form Ln2+ sulfates, while gadolinium is not photoreduced and does not coprecipitate. When lanthanum is introduced instead of gadolinium, lanthanum coprecipitates along with neodymium, samarium, and europium. These results are explained by photolyzing Nd-Gd and Nd-La systems for comparison, and the difference in precipitation behaviors between these two systems is explained by the differences in ion size of these elements. Photolysis is also performed for a Nd-Am system. Am3+ is carried along with neodymium and coprecipitated. As a way to decrease the amount of americium carried along with neodymium, americium is photo-chemically oxidized by emitting light from a deuterium lamp as well as from a mercury lamp. The fraction of americium carried with neodymium decreases with the use of this technique. This result is also explained by the differences in ion size of these elements.
