Laboratories
The laboratories are an important part of IFE's research activities.
- Experiment Engineering
- About 35 instrumented test assemblies are loaded in the Halden Boiling Water Reactor (HBWR). The assemblies are fitted with a wide range of instruments in order to characterise a large number of properties of nuclear fuels and materials.
- Fluidlab
- The laboratory has equipment for characterization of fluids
- Halden Boiling Water Reactor (HBWR)
- The reactor is situated 100 meters within a rock hillside, with a rock covering of 30-50 meters. As the reactor is operational the reactor hall is closed with air lockdoors. The net volume inside the reactor hall is 4500 m³. The reactor hall is 10 meters wide, 30 meters long and has a total height of 26 meters, where 11.5 meters are above the main floor. The reactor hall also contains fuel pits for temporarily storage of used fuel.
- Halden Virtual Reality Centre
- Halden Virtual Reality Centre (HVRC) is an international centre for research into virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies focussed on the application of both emerging and maturing 3D technologies to address the needs of industries that manage complex processes.
- HAMMLAB
- HAMMLAB is an international centre for research into process control, human system interaction, and human performance in complex systems. Its patrons include utilities, vendors and regulatory bodies from twenty countries world-wide, who jointly fund applied nuclear research through the OECD Halden Project, and individual groups and organisations who fund specific studies.
- Hastelloy loops
- The two Hastelloy loops are used for high temperature and high pressure corrosion testing.
- Instrumentation Design
- The Institute for Energy Technology has been world leading within design and manufacture of nuclear instrumentation since the early 1960’s for experiments in the Halden Reactor. Today, IFE-Halden has a unique competence in instrumentation used for on-line monitoring of nuclear fuel and material behavior; specially customized instrumentation solutions; and a highly developed program on Generation IV instruments. IFE –Halden has a foresight development program aimed at meeting instrumentation requirements for the long-term future within the nuclear industry.
- Laser Ablation Laboratory
- The IFE Laser Ablation Laboratory is equipped with a high-powered Nd-doped Y-Al Garnet (YAG) laser (Quantronix 116 SRO/ QS) combined with a He-Ne (red) aiming laser.
- Low Level Radioactivity Laboratories
- IFE operates one of Norway's largest special laboratories for radiochemical analysis and measurement of very small amounts of radiactivity in such samples. The laboratory is also a qualified member of IAEA’s ALMERA (Analytical Laboratories for the Measurement of Environmental Radioactivity) network. To be a qualified member of this network, the laboratory has to participate with good results in the ALMERA proficiency tests arranged by IAEA.
- Low Pressure Loop
- IFE's Low Pressure Loop is used for studying 2- and 3-phase multiphase gas-liquid-particle flow in near horizontal pipes or in a rectangular channel, at atmospheric pressure. The test facility contributes with high quality experimental data used to improve and test basic multiphase flow models.
- Neutron Activation Laboratory
- The 2 MW JEEP II reactors at IFE provides excellent facilities for Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA).
- Pyrolysis Laboratory
- Simulation of natural processes in the laboratory under controlled experimental conditions; time, temperature, pressure and reaction system.
- Reactor Chemistry
- The Reactor Chemistry Section in the Experimental Engineering Department in Halden has two laboratories; one operational and the other analytical. Three Chemists work in each laboratory. The laboratory working fields are mostly aqueous systems, which range from high purity to waste water.
- Scanning Electron Microscope
- Scanning Electron Microscopy is used to characterise surface topography (unique depth definition), micro-structure, element composition, and to take pictures with magnification in the range of 10 to 100 000.
- The IFE Solar Cell Laboratory
- The IFE Solar Cell Laboratory houses a wide selection of equipment for processing and characterizing solar cells and solar cell materials. In addition to being the heart of the solar cell research activity at IFE, the laboratory is also used by collaborators from industry and research. The most sensitive processes are operated in a clean room environment. In the following, a brief overview of the process and characterization capabilities at IFE will be given. For more information, please contact us for more details.
- Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry
- The IFE Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry (TIMS) laboratory is equipped with a Finnigan MAT 261 mass spectrometer. This solid source machine has a turret with 13 sample positions.
- Thermoluminescence Dosimetry (TLD) Laboratory
- The Thermoluminescence Dosimetry (TLD) Laboratory offers personal and extremity dosimetry to IFE's employees and external customers.
- Tracer Analyses Laboratories
- The laboratories provide "state of the art"-methods for the determination of lowest concentrations of tracers in petroleum reservoir fluids. Several thousand tracer samples from reservoirs worldwide are prepared and analyzed in these laboratories every year. Beside these routine analyses, a continuous development of analytical methods for actual tracers and new tracer candidates is going on to provide "state of the art"-methods also in the future.
- Well Flow Loop
- IFE's Well Flow Loop is used for studying multiphase oil-water-gas flow in pipes with inclinations ranging from horizontal to vertical.
