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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.
Tetsuo Nishihara, Yoshiyuki Inagaki
Nuclear Technology | Volume 153 | Number 1 | January 2006 | Pages 100-106
Technical Note | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3692
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute has performed the research and development of hydrogen production using the high-temperature engineering test reactor (HTTR). One of the key issues for the HTTR hydrogen production system is the development of control technology for stable operation. A thermal load absorber concept using a steam generator installed downstream of a reformer is proposed to mitigate a variation of helium temperature. Thermal-hydraulic analyses for the start-up operation and the suspension of the feed gas supply to the reformer are carried out. These results show that a large variation of the reformer outlet helium temperature takes place because of a change of the feed gas flow rate. However, the steam generator can mitigate the variation of the helium temperature. It is clarified that the HTTR can continue normal operation independently of the feed gas flow rate.
