INL employee finds his passion working with radioactive materials and fuels - East Idaho News
Idaho Falls

INL employee finds his passion working with radioactive materials and fuels

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IDAHO FALLS — Stepping inside the Idaho National Laboratory’s main hot cell would be a bad idea. However, employees such as Brian Frickey still manage to do their job there — but from an outside window looking in.

Nobody’s been in the main hot cell since the mid-’70s due to the highly radioactive materials inside. It’s in the Hot Fuel Examination Facility, which is a building where destructive examinations take place. Employees work at about 15 windows that wrap around the main hot cell. The windows have several layers of thick glass for protection. Frickey works at a window called a containment box.

“Some people don’t like doing what I do. It takes a lot of patience,” Frickey said. “I like working with the detailed stuff.”

The containment box isn’t a huge space, but it’s home to certain machines such as a grinder, polisher, saw and other tools that have been built for specific projects. Frickey’s a hot cell operator, and his job is to turn radioactive material and fuel into something researchers can study under a microscope.

“We’ll try to find fuels for future energy for the nation, internationally, but we want safe fuels,” Frickey said.

To help with that process, Frickey has to look through a window and use robotic arms to create samples from experiments for researchers to study.

“The work Brian does bridges (what) the researchers, who are coming up with great ideas, are testing their samples, their materials and creating an experiment (do),” said Heather Chichester, post-irradiation examination division director and one of Frickey’s managers. “The data (from the experiments) comes from the work that Brian does.”

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Frickey operating the manipulators at the containment box inside the Hot Fuel Examination Facility. | Brittni Johnson, EastIdahoNews.com

A bulk of the experiments that Frickey works with comes from the Advanced Test Reactor. ATR is a machine that tests nuclear fuels and materials.

To prepare samples, he often has to cut a section of a fuel pin (similar to a tube). He then places the section into a mount with epoxy glue. As the glue is heated, the item hardens. Frickey then looks through a periscope to grind and polish the experiment for a “mere finish.”

“The researchers want to look at the fuel (and) the cladding (outer layer), and they want to look at the interaction between the two,” Frickey said. “They can look at the interface of the fuel and the cladding and see if there’s an issue. Maybe this cladding is not a good fit for this fuel … if it’s something that’s not compatible or it’s going to have a failure, we don’t want that fuel getting out into the reactor or making a mess.”

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Frickey using the manipulators to hold a mount inside the containment cell. | Brittni Johnson, EastIdahoNews.com

Chichester believes a sample preparation job is an “art.”

“Brian brings an interest in not just completing the work and having pride in his work, but understanding how it fits into the bigger picture,” Chichester said. “The experience he’s developed is what all of us rely on to end up with a sample that allows us to collect data.”

Frickey didn’t know a thing about nuclear physics prior to his career at the INL. But, as the years have flown by, his love for what he does has grown.

“It’s cool seeing all of this research and being part of it,” Frickey said with a smile.

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Frickey working at the containment box inside the Hot Fuel Examination Facility. | Brittni Johnson, EastIdahoNews.com
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Frickey holding the finished product. | Brittni Johnson, EastIdahoNews.com
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Frickey working at the containment box inside the Hot Fuel Examination Facility. | Brittni Johnson, EastIdahoNews.com
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The containment box inside the Hot Fuel Examination Facility. | Brittni Johnson, EastIdahoNews.com

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