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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.
Zhonglu Wang, Rebecca M. Howell, Stephen F. Kry, Eric A. Burgett, Nolan E. Hertel, Mohammad Salehpour
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 3 | December 2009 | Pages 603-609
Neutron Measurements | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (PART 3) / Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9276
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A gold-and-indium dual-activation-foil-based Bonner sphere system (BSS) for neutron spectral measurements was investigated. A customized polyethylene holder was designed to simultaneously accommodate one indium foil and one gold foil placed orthogonally to each other. The holder, which fits into the center of a Bonner sphere, resembles a standard 6LiI(Eu) detector. The response of the dual-activation-foil-based system was calculated using the MCNPX code with different activation cross-section libraries (ACTL and ENDF/VI for gold foils and ACTL and 532DOS2 for indium foils). To verify and correct the calculated response functions, measurements were performed using 252Cf and AmBe neutron sources of known strengths. Working response functions were determined for neutrons with energies ranging from thermal to 20 MeV by applying correction factors from measurements in well-characterized beams to the Monte Carlo-calculated response functions. Measured data were successfully unfolded with the corrected response functions and found to be in good agreement with the known spectra.
