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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.
J. C. DeBoo, D. R. Baker, M. R. Wade
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 2 | October 2005 | Pages 988-996
Technical Paper | DIII-D Tokamak - Achieving Reactor Quality Plasma Confinement | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A1054
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
DIII-D has studied thermal and particle transport in International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)-relevant regimes. In order to better distinguish between thermal transport models, it is important to test both the steady-state and time-dependent predictions of models against experimental results. Based on experiments in DIII-D, models containing the full spectral range of drift wave physics from ion temperature gradient to electron temperature gradient modes were in closest agreement with experimental observations. Inclusion of E × B flow shear stabilization effects was found to be important. Although some aspects of the experimental observations were well matched by various models, no individual model did well matching both the equilibrium and time-dependent electron and ion behavior, which clearly indicates that further improvement in transport models is required. Helium transport studies in DIII-D are encouraging for ITER in that they indicate that the measured particle diffusivity is sufficient to remove helium ash fast enough to avoid deleterious fuel dilution, but other factors for ITER such as divertor geometry and pumping speed must also be assessed.