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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.
Yong Jin Cho, Gyoo Dong Jeun
Nuclear Technology | Volume 158 | Number 3 | June 2007 | Pages 366-377
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3848
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The header of a Canada deuterium uranium reactor (CANDU) is an important component in simulating the fuel channel behavior because the header's hydraulic behavior controls the feeder void fraction, which affects the fuel bundle coolability. In CANDU accident analyses, the liquid entrainment and vapor pull-through (off-take) phenomena should be considered when horizontal stratification is achieved inside the header. The current RELAP5 off-take model can treat only three directions: vertical upward, vertical downward, and side oriented junctions. In this study, the RELAP5 off-take model was modified and generalized by considering the geometric effect of branch angles. Based on Craya's approach, the critical height correlation was reconstructed by use of the branch line connection angle. The new model in RELAP5/CANDU could be applied to vertical upward, vertical downward, and angled branch. The verification and validation analyses for this new model were performed using separate effect test and integral effect test results. The verification and validation analyses show improved accuracy with the new model.
