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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.
Chi-Yong Park, Huinam Rhee, Ki-Wahn Ryu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 201 | Number 1 | January 2018 | Pages 23-40
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1392396
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This study proposes a methodology to estimate time-varying in situ wear coefficient between steam generator tubes in nuclear power plants and their supporting structures. Actual wear depth measurement data of steam generator tubes of OPR1000 (Optimized Power Reactor 1000 MW) plants in Korea were collected and analyzed to investigate the behavior of fretting wear. To determine the in situ wear coefficient, a mathematical expression was developed as a function of various parameters such as measured wear depth time history, work rate, contact geometry of the tube, and its support. These calculated in situ wear coefficients were then used to obtain wear depth history curves. Results obtained were then compared with actual field measurement data to show the validity of the proposed method. Many researchers have obtained wear coefficients under laboratory conditions. However, those coefficients cannot be considered as realistic factors for operating steam generators. The in situ wear coefficient proposed in this study is based on wear measurement data obtained from real operating steam generator tubes. Therefore, they can be used to precisely predict the wear depth of steam generator tubes, thus allowing safe and economical management of steam generators.