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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.
G. Muhrer, M. Wilson, Ch. Kelsey, E. Pitcher
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 2 | November 2009 | Pages 497-501
Shielding | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (Part 2) / Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9232
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Materials Test Station (MTS) is a project by the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative to build a facility that allows for irradiating nuclear fuel and material samples to acquire the necessary knowledge to close the nuclear fuel cycle and thereby reduce the amount and the toxicity of the nuclear waste. This facility is proposed to be located in Area A of the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The MTS is proposed to be a spallation target facility operated up to 2 MW (2.5 mA at 800 MeV). To safely operate a facility of this size, a large amount of shielding needs to be put into place. In this paper we will discuss the shielding design proposed for the MTS.
