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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.
R. B. Stephens, D. A. Steinman, M. L. Hoppe
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 4 | May 2006 | Pages 646-649
Technical Paper | Target Fabrication | doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1180
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
White light interferometry has been adapted to the characterization of transparent ICF shells and their precursor mandrels. The combination of an interferometric microscope, a precision z-stage, and simulation-derived analysis algorithms allow determination of the diameters of the inner and outer surfaces, their non-concentricity, the location of interfacial layers, the average index of refraction of the walls, and the thickness of discrete layers within the shell wall. The hard- and soft-ware required for these measurements are described.
