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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.
U. Samm
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 2 | February 2006 | Pages 234-239
Technical Paper | Plasma and Fusion Energy Physics - Edge Physics and Exhaust | doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1122
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The control of wall loads in fusion devices, in particular with respect to the life time limitations of wall components due to material erosion and migration, will be decisive for the realisation of a fusion power plant operating in steady state. In ITER the primary goal for plasma-wall interaction is the achievement of a high availability of this pulsed experiment. The article describes the grand challenges of plasma-wall interaction research along the needs for ITER and the strategies of ongoing research for further optimization of the design. Addressed are questions related to material problems, erosion- and transport processes, tritium retention in deposited layers and problems transient heat loads.
