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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.
Benjamin M. Chase, Anthony W. LaPorta, James R. Parry
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 10 | October 2019 | Pages 1312-1324
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1585162
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A core characterization process was completed as part of the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) restart project. The core characterization process is normally performed following a reconfiguration of the TREAT core. This characterization process includes performance of three temperature-limited transients. Prior to performing the transients, analysis is performed using KENO-VI to determine the high-temperature locations and the initiating reactivities for each transient. The point-kinetics code Simulating TREAT Reactor Kinetics (STREK) is used to estimate the peak power, peak temperature, and total energy deposition in the core. STREK also provides plots of pertinent parameters as functions of time to observe time-dependent behavior of the transient. After the transients are complete, the resulting data from these transients are used to develop operating limits for continued operation with the core configuration being characterized. The three transients for the characterization are performed in a progression of increasing initiating reactivity. The first transient has an initiating reactivity of 1.8%Δk/k. The second transient has an initiating reactivity of 3.0%Δk/k. The third transient has an initiating reactivity of 3.85%Δk/k. After the first two transients are performed, a two-point extrapolation of the data is used to determine a temporary estimate of the core operating limits. Once the third transient is complete, the resulting data are fit to an equation, and a three-point extrapolation of the operating limits for the core configuration is generated. This completes the characterization process and provides conservative limits for transient operation of TREAT.