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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.
Atsuhiko M. Sukegawa, Koichi Okuno, Shinji Sakurai
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 2 | November 2009 | Pages 553-558
Shielding Materials | 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-A9242
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Three kinds of unique high-heat-resistant neutron shielding resins have been developed. One is an excellent resin in terms of light weight. Another is a high-neutron-shielding-performance resin with a heat-proof temperature of 200°C. The third is a resin improved up to a heat-proof temperature of 300°C. The neutron shielding performance of the resins was carried out using a 252Cf neutron source. The results show that the shielding performance of the resin with a heat-proof temperature of 200°C is better than the neutron shielding resins with heat-proof temperatures up to 200°C. And, the performance of the resin with a heat-proof temperature up to 300°C is almost the same as that of polyethylene. It can be concluded that high-heat-resistant resin is attractive as the neutron shielding material in a high-temperature environment.
