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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.
Kenjiro Matsuhiro, Hirofumi Nakamura, Takumi Hayashi, Hiroo Nakamura, Masayoshi Sugimoto
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 625-628
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Materials Interaction and Permeation | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A1003
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In International Fusion Material Irradiation Facility (IFMIF), neutrons are produced by the reaction between 40 MeV deuterium and liquid lithium. In this process, tritium (3 × 1011 Bq/h) is generated in the lithium flow. Tritium permeation and inventory of IFMIF lithium loop components are evaluated for safety of the IFMIF and the design of tritium processing system of the IFMIF. The tritium permeation rate from a V-Ti hot trap is about 95% of the total amount, 1.0 × 106 Bq/h, from lithium loop. Therefore, the reduction of the tritium permeation rate from only the V-Ti hot trap can directly reduce the total tritium permeation from the Li loop and the gaseous tritium in the Li loop area. Total tritium contained in the walls ewt by liquid lithium in the IFMIF is 5.3 × 107 Bq, which is much smaller than 4.9 × 1014 Bq of tritium contained in the Li flow with a volume of 9 m3.