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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.
Jang-Guen Park, Sung-Hee Jung, Jong Bum Kim, Jinho Moon, Chan Hyeong Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 192 | Number 2 | November 2015 | Pages 133-141
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-16
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In industrial processes where multiphase flows are frequently encountered, it is important to examine the phase distribution and flow pattern to optimize process efficiency, safe operation, and cost savings. One of the most suitable techniques of industrial-process flow-dynamics visualization is the single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) system, which provides, by means of a process-system-injected radioisotope source, cross-sectional images of the process flow. Obtaining reliable SPECT imaging results for a multiphase flow system, however, remains a significant challenge. In the present study, the use of a diverging collimator for improvement of industrial SPECT system performance is proposed. The advantages of the diverging-collimation industrial SPECT system as compared with a previous parallel-collimation version can be summarized as follows: (a) significant reduction of edge artifacts on a detection-efficiency map, and 19% improvement of average detection efficiency; (b) 36% improvement of image resolution; (c) accurate source region reconstruction even with the source positioned farther from the object’s center; and (d) a reduced system size.
