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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.
Fanny Jallu, Alain Mariani, Christian Passard, Anne-Cecile Raoux, Herve Toubon
Nuclear Technology | Volume 153 | Number 1 | January 2006 | Pages 107-115
Technical Note | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3693
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The PROMpt, Epithermal and THErmal interrogation Experiment, version 6 (1996) (PROMETHEE 6) assay system for alpha-particle low-level waste characterization, developed for research and development purposes, includes both passive and active neutron measurement methods. Developed at the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Cadarache Centre, in cooperation with COGEMA, its aim is to reach the incinerating alpha-particle waste requirements (<50 Bq[]/g of crude waste, i.e., ~50 g of Pu per drum) in 118-l "European" drums (460 mm in diameter and 750 mm high). Good preliminary results were presented: detection limits of ~0.12 mg of effective 239Pu in total active neutron counting and 0.08 mg of effective 239Pu in coincident active neutron counting [empty cavity, measurement time of 15 min, neutron generator emission of 1.6 × 108 s-1 (4)]. Those results are improved with the use of a higher neutron source emission [GENIE 36 generator, neutron emission of 2.4 × 109 s-1 (4)] and working on the configuration of the detector units. In the total counting mode, the gain is a factor of ~4 in a cellulose matrix and 3.1 in a polyvinyl chloride matrix. In the coincidence counting mode, these factors are 1.8 and 1.7, respectively. After a very short description of PROMETHEE 6, this paper presents the last and best performances that were obtained with the increased neutron source. Studies on the detection limit variations with the use of borated shields in front of the detection units and around the neutron generator also are dealt with.
