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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.
P. C. Lai, R. J. Sheu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 4 | April 2022 | Pages 723-734
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1938486
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The characteristics of the radiation field around a consolidated interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility were investigated comprehensively through Monte Carlo simulations. Neutron and gamma-ray flux/dose contributions from multiple transport pathways, including direct, streaming, skyshine, groundshine, and multishine, were isolated using a modified version of the method that was originally developed by Oh et al. [J. Korean Phys. Soc., Vol. 69, 1057 (2016)] for the evaluation of neutron skyshine from a high-energy electron accelerator. The application of the methodology was demonstrated in this paper, and the flux/dose contributions of individual pathways were examined and compared. The results provided additional insight into how the radiation propagated from the source to off-site locations. The modified method for separating five transport pathways can provide valuable information for shielding optimization during the design phase and is generally applicable to Monte Carlo shielding analyses of other nuclear facilities.
