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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.
Lowie Brabants, Mattias Simons, David de Schepper, Eric Demeester, Wouter Schroeyers
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 11 | November 2022 | Pages 1681-1695
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2073950
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This study determines the minimal detection time (MDT) needed for successful localization of radioactive hot spots during nuclear decommissioning work. An automated XY stage, equipped with a CdZnTe (CZT) spectrometer, was used to identify and localize hot spots of 241Am, 137Cs, and 60Co in a 1.7 × 1.7-m area. The stage served as a preliminary test platform for the development of an automated robotic characterization platform [Autonomous Robotic platform for CHaractERization (ARCHER) robot]. The dependence of the MDT on the detector efficiency and background (BKG) level was examined. For low BKG environments, the MDT for 137Cs was 871 ms and resulted in an error of the source localization of 14.21 mm and an error of the activity of 6.85%. For elevated BKG levels, the MDT increased to 15 526 ms. The 137Cs source was localized with an error of 34.13 mm and an error of the source activity of −7.04%. The MDT determination method used here offers a valuable approach for decreasing total scanning times while avoiding missing the presence of hot spots.
