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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.
Yukimoto Maeda, Takafumi Aoyama, Toshihiro Odo, Satoru Nakai, Soju Suzuki
Nuclear Technology | Volume 150 | Number 1 | April 2005 | Pages 16-36
Technical Paper | Sodium Technology | doi.org/10.13182/NT05-A3602
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The experimental fast reactor JOYO at the O-arai Engineering Center of the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute is the first liquid sodium fast reactor in Japan. The purpose of constructing JOYO was to obtain technical information about liquid-metal fast breeder reactors (LMFBRs) through experience with their design, construction, and operation and to use the reactor as a fast neutron irradiation facility for the development of fuels, materials, and other components required for the LMFBR program. Through design, construction, testing, operation, and maintenance experience, JOYO has contributed much to the LMFBR development program. In addition to providing operating experience, many kinds of irradiation tests have been conducted for the development of fuels and materials under the conditions of higher fast neutron flux and temperature than those in light water reactors. JOYO has been operated successfully for a quarter-century without any serious problem, and this operation demonstrated the safety and reliability of the sodium-cooled fast reactor.The reactor has just been upgraded to the MK-III core to increase irradiation capability for playing a greater role in providing an irradiation field as a fast reactor. Given the worldwide trend of fast reactor shutdowns, JOYO is an increasingly valuable world resource for current and future reactor development.
