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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.
T. C. Luce
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 2 | October 2005 | Pages 1212-1225
Technical Paper | DIII-D Tokamak - Advanced Tokamak Scenarios | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A1072
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Research into the feasibility of steady-state operation of high-fusion-gain tokamak plasmas is one of the central elements of the DIII-D program. Realization of such discharges has progressed to the point of demonstrating well-aligned noninductive current profiles for a resistive time at 90% of the total current with plasma pressure and confinement consistent with fusion gain >5 in an ITER-sized tokamak. Full current drive discharges with poorer alignment have been obtained for shorter duration. The design methodology and the path to integrating the various elements necessary for full noninductive operation on DIII-D are discussed in detail.