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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.
Yongwei Chen, Zeyong Zhang, Dong Li
Nuclear Technology | Volume 204 | Number 3 | December 2018 | Pages 378-385
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1477394
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To effectively reduce the probability of instrumentation and control (I&C) equipment aging failures in nuclear power plants, a preventive replacement aging treatment strategy should be adopted. A single failure–oriented and component aging sensitivity classification model is put forward to classify I&C equipment aging in nuclear power plants, and three methods for assessing I&C equipment life cycles (i.e., aging tests, standards and specifications, and failure data) are provided. Meanwhile, provided with the characteristic curves of I&C equipment aging failures in nuclear power plants, specific aging treatment steps are put forward, including (1) defining the scope of aging treatment in horizontal and longitudinal dimensions of signal flow direction and equipment composition; (2) determining the aging treatment implementation cycle by a life cycle margin setting method; (3) refining the aging treatment implementation process by division of four stages, namely, aged equipment classification, aging data management, aging treatment implementation, and aging testing feedback, to ensure reliable and safe operation of I&C equipment in nuclear power plants.
