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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.
Joffrey Dorville, Jacob Tellez, Conner Glatt, Andrew Osborne, Jenifer Shafer, Jeffrey King
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 1 | December 2022 | Pages S26-S51
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2072649
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Megawatt Implementation of a NuclEar ReActor using Low-enrichment uranium (MINERAL) is designed to deliver 2 MW(electric) of steady-state electricity to a colony established on the surface of Mars with a minimum lifetime of 10 years. The main challenge associated with a low-enrichment uranium fission surface power system is reducing the total mass, which will be higher than that of an equivalent high-enrichment uranium system. Optimizing the mass of the system is crucial to limit the amount of Earth-Mars cargo needed to deploy a MINERAL unit. The use of yttrium hydride as a moderator has shown promise in reducing the overall mass of the reactor. An in-house Python framework evaluates the neutronic, thermal-hydraulic, and heat rejection performance throughout the design process. The final design iteration uses a CO2 Brayton cycle cooled by a passive heat rejection system consisting of six panels with a total surface area of 4752 m2. The cylindrical core is fueled with low-enrichment uranium monocarbide with 0.83 wt% of pure 157Gd moderated with yttrium hydride and surrounded by a beryllium oxide reflector. The reactivity is controlled by ten control drums and a central control rod, which provide enough margin to operate the reactor and ensure its subcriticality in case of a submersion accident. The mass of the core with the reflector, reactivity control system, and shield is 7.2 tonnes.