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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.
Phillip J. Taddei, Dragan Mirkovic, Jonas D. Fontenot, Annelise Giebeler, Yuanshui Zheng, Uwe Titt, Shiao Woo, Wayne D. Newhauser
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 1 | October 2009 | Pages 108-112
Dose/Dose Rate | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (Part 1) / Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9108
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The aim of this study was to quantify stray radiation dose from neutrons emanating from a proton treatment unit and to evaluate methods of reducing this dose for a pediatric patient undergoing craniospinal irradiation. The organ equivalent doses and effective dose from stray radiation were estimated for a 30.6-Gy treatment using Monte Carlo simulations of a passive scattering treatment unit and a patient-specific voxelized anatomy. The treatment plan was based on computed tomography images of a 10-yr-old male patient. The contribution to stray radiation was evaluated for the standard nozzle and for the same nozzle but with modest modifications to suppress stray radiation. The modifications included enhancing the local shielding between the patient and the primary external neutron source and increasing the distance between them. The effective dose from stray radiation emanating from the standard nozzle was 322 mSv; enhancements to the nozzle reduced the effective dose by as much as 43%. These results add to the body of evidence that modest enhancements to the treatment unit can reduce substantially the effective dose from stray radiation.
