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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Researchers use one-of-a-kind expertise and capabilities to test fuels of tomorrow
At the Idaho National Laboratory Hot Fuel Examination Facility, containment box operator Jake Maupin moves a manipulator arm into position around a pencil-thin nuclear fuel rod. He is preparing for a procedure that he and his colleagues have practiced repeatedly in anticipation of this moment in the hot cell.
M. L. Simmons, Donald J. Dudziak
Nuclear Technology | Volume 29 | Number 3 | June 1976 | Pages 337-345
Technical Paper | Fusion Reactor Material / Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT76-A31599
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An essential element of any fusion or fission reactor materials development effort is the availability of irradiation facilities for conducting radiation effects experiments. A Radiation Effects Facility (REF) was provided for such studies at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility. Neutron spectra at the REF can be tailored to approximate those in either a fusion or fission reactor, while providing flux levels of ∼1.4 × 1018 m−2 s−1 at design maximum beam currents. An intranuclear-cascade/evaporation model was used for computing neutron production. Detailed Monte Carlo neutron transport calculations were performed, some of which were experimentally verified in a foil dosimetry program. Such calculations provide the radiation effects experimentalist with information on spatial-spectral variations of the neutron flux over much of the easily accessible experimental volume (∼19 000 cm3), which includes irradiation specimen capsule locations and a rabbit tube. From these data, radiation damage indices such as ratios of parts per million helium to displacements per atom can be calculated and compared to those anticipated in fusion reactor blankets or fast fission reactor cores.