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Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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Latest News
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.
Pan Wu, David Novog
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 1 | January-February 2019 | Pages 364-376
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1495000
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The CTF code is a subchannel thermal-hydraulic code developed based on the COBRA-TF code. In this work, the CTF code is used to predict the single- and two-phase heat transfer, pressure drop, onset of nucleate boiling, and dryout heat flux in water at several temperatures and pressures under steady-state and transient conditions. The conditions cover a range of pressures from 2 to 6 MPa, flows from 1000 to 2500 kg/(m2∙s), and inlet subcooling from 40°C to 70°C. Experimental heat balance tests show agreement between coolant enthalpy change and the electrical power with a difference of no more than 1.0%. Steady-state experiments were performed at constant inlet conditions in a cylindrical directly heated Inconel test section where the wall temperatures were measured at each power level. For each steady-state test, the experimental boiling curve is compared to CTF predictions. Transient experiments were performed by initiating a blowdown from the test section outlet plenum using a fast-acting valve with an open time of less than 100 ms. The time of dryout in these transient experiments is compared with the CTF results to clarify the pressure transient effect on the dryout prediction.