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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.
Jun Sugimoto
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 2 | November 2016 | Pages 149-160
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-21
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
After the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in March 2011 (Fukushima accident), several investigation committees in Japan issued reports with lessons learned from the accident, including some recommendations on severe accident research. The review of specific severe accident research issues began after the Fukushima accident in the Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ). AESJ has recently developed a new Thermal Hydraulics Safety Evaluation Fundamental Technology Enhancement Strategy Roadmap (TH-RM) for light water reactor safety improvement and development after the Fukushima accident by thoroughly revising the first version of the Roadmap (TH-RM-1) prepared in 2009. The revision was made by considering the lessons learned from the Fukushima accident. At the same time, the Research Expert Committee on Evaluation of Severe Accident, which was established by AESJ in 2012, has published phenomena identification and ranking tables (PIRTs) for both thermal hydraulics and source term issues in severe accidents based on findings from the Fukushima accident utilizing PIRT methodologies. The present paper reviews severe accident research before the Fukushima accident, lessons learned about severe accident research from the Fukushima accident, severe accident research issues reviewed after the Fukushima accident by AESJ, and current severe accident research activities mostly based on the two above-mentioned AESJ reviews after the Fukushima accident in Japan.
