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The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
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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.
Chang Joon Jeong, Bo Wook Rhee, Hangbok Choi, Myung Seung Yang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 155 | Number 2 | August 2006 | Pages 176-191
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3755
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The compatibility of the direct use of spent pressurized water reactor fuel in Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactor (DUPIC) fuel with the existing 713-MW(electric) CANDU (CANDU-6) reactor has been analyzed for large-break loss-of-coolant-accident (LOCA) scenarios such as a 55% pump suction break, a 35% reactor inlet header break, and a 100% reactor outlet header break. The compatibility was assessed for the fuel integrity against the stored energy and the radiation environmental effect resulting from the large-break LOCA. The analysis showed that the stored energy of the DUPIC fuel was below the fuel breakup energy by 32%. The environmental effect was estimated for the personal and public doses using the radiation source term obtained from one-fourth of the fission product inventory in the fuel gap of the CANDU-6 reactor, being steadily operated at full power. The analyses have shown that both the personal and population doses are below the design limits even for a postulated dual failure such as a complete loss of containment building isolation logic.
