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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.
Povilas Poskas, Raimondas Kilda, Valdas Ragaisis, Terry M. Sullivan
Nuclear Technology | Volume 161 | Number 2 | February 2008 | Pages 140-155
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A3919
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Safety assessment of a near-surface repository of radioactive waste usually assumes a homogeneous distribution of activity within the vaults of the repository. However, in some cases there is radioactive waste, e.g., disused sealed sources, which should result in so-called "hot spots" when disposed of with other radioactive waste. An uneven distribution of waste activity is obtained in that case.The impact of heterogeneities in source distribution on radionuclide releases from a near-surface repository to the groundwater is analyzed in the paper. The conditions that stand for the application of homogeneous distribution of radioactive waste are revealed.The assessment has been performed using the methodology of the Improving Long Term Safety Assessment Methodologies for Near Surface Radioactive Waste Disposal Facilities (ISAM) study recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency for the safety analysis of the near-surface repository. A description of the ISAM methodology and its application for the analysis of heterogeneity including a brief description of the disposal system of radioactive waste, the scenarios for the radionuclide migration, and the developed conceptual models are presented in the paper.The calculations have been carried out using the DUST and GWSCREEN computer codes, designed to simulate radionuclide transport. The modeling results for the case of homogeneous distribution of radioactive waste in the repository are considered. The impact of heterogeneities has been analyzed by comparing the modeling results of radionuclide transport for the heterogeneous case of waste distribution to the homogeneous case.
