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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.
Lin-Wen Hu, John A. Bernard, Pavel Hejzlar, Gordon Kohse
Nuclear Technology | Volume 150 | Number 2 | May 2005 | Pages 203-208
Technical Note | Materials for Nuclear Systems | doi.org/10.13182/NT05-A3617
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A fissile materials irradiation capability has been developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Research Reactor (MITR) to support nuclear engineering studies in the area of advanced fuels. The focus of the expected research is to investigate the basic properties of advanced nuclear fuels using small aggregates of fissile material. As such, this program is intended to complement the ongoing fuel evaluation programs at test reactors. Candidates for study at the MITR include vibration-packed annular fuel for light water reactors and microparticle fuels for high-temperature gas reactors. Technical considerations that pertain to the design of the MITR facility are enumerated including those specified by 10 CFR 50 concerning the definition of a research reactor and those contained in a separate license amendment that was issued by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to MIT for these types of experiments. The former includes limits on the cross-sectional area of the experiment, the physical form of the irradiated material, and the removal of heat. The latter addresses experiment reactivity worth, thermal-hydraulic considerations, avoidance of fission product release, and experiment specific temperature scrams.
