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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.
D. Ene, J.-C. David, D. Doré, B. Rapp, D. Ridikas
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 2 | November 2009 | Pages 513-518
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) / Accelerators | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9235
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The purpose of this safety study, carried out within the EURISOL Design Study, was to characterize the radiation environment and design the appropriate shielding of the new-generation radioactive ion beam postaccelerator. Both variants of linac layouts - without stripper (L#1) and with stripper (L#2) - were analyzed using the 132Sn25+ radioactive beam of unprecedented intensity, namely, up to [approximately]1013 particles/s, as reference for simulations. In this work two scenarios were analyzed: (a) an accidental full beam loss during 1 s every day and (b) continuous beam loss of 10-4 m-1 , representing normal operation conditions. Representative loss positions along the accelerator at variable energies of 21, 45.5, 76, 115, and 150 MeVu-1 were investigated. The lost ions were assumed to strike a stopping copper target. Dedicated simulations were performed by means of the PHITS code. The induced radioactivity in the accelerator components, concrete walls, and air inside the tunnel were estimated using the DCHAIN-SP-2001 code based on an external neutron source and spallation products derived from PHITS. Ambient dose equivalent rates due to the residual radiation were calculated with the MCNPX code using photon sources resulting from DCHAIN. The effect of implanted radioactive ions at low energies in the accelerator structure was also assessed.
