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The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.
Gustavo A. Cragnolino, Darrell S. Dunn, C. Sean Brossia, Yi-Ming Pan, Osvaldo Pensado, Lietai Yang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 148 | Number 2 | November 2004 | Pages 166-173
Technical Paper | High-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3556
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The susceptibility to various forms of corrosion that could be experienced by the alloys considered by the U.S. Department of Energy for the waste package and drip shield, the principal components of the engineered barrier system for the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, is evaluated on the basis of experimental studies conducted at the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses. Environmental, metallurgical, and mechanical conditions for the occurrence of uniform corrosion, localized corrosion, and environmentally assisted cracking of Alloy 22 (58Ni-22Cr-13Mo-3W-4Fe), the preferred material for the outer container, and Titanium-Grade 7 (Ti-0.15 Pd), the alloy proposed for the drip shield, are reported.
