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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.
Joonhong Ahn, Myeongguk Cheon
Nuclear Technology | Volume 156 | Number 3 | December 2006 | Pages 303-319
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3793
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A linear programming approach has been developed to determine maximum mass loading of radionuclides in vitrified high-level waste (HLW). Linear approximation for the centerline temperature of vertically stacked cylindrical HLW canisters has been developed by assuming constant heat flux from a canister, steady-state heat transfer, natural convection, and by neglecting radiation effects. With the linear formula for the centerline temperature, it has been demonstrated that maximum radionuclide mass loading can be determined by the linear programming model conservatively. A numerical result for vitrification of HLW from PUREX reprocessing of pressurized water reactor spent fuel indicates that the maximum temperature constraint is one of the essential constraints in determining the feasible solution space for optimization if the heat emission from the waste is in a certain range (between 11.2 and 24.5 W/kg in this example).The linear programming model can be utilized to link various fuel cycle models and repository performance models in a consistent and quantitative manner.
