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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.
K. A. Tanaka, A. Hassanein, Y. Hirooka, T. Kono, S. Misaki, T. Ohishi, A. Sunahara, S. Tanaka
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 1 | July 2011 | Pages 329-333
Materials Development & Plasma-Material Interactions | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12374
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Laser ablation scheme can cover pretty wide range of intensity regime as a heat source at its laser focus spot from 103 W/cm2 to 1014 W/cm2. These intensities cover the ones expected at the divertor (MFE) and the first walls (IFE) in a reactor. For example expected values are of 10 to 100 MW/m2 at MFE divertor and 109 W/cm2 or higher at IFE first walls. The ablation may include plasma, gas, liquid, or solid: all possible phases mixed at an extreme condition where temperature may exceed 1 eV with corresponding densities. The areas of these mixed phases at extreme conditions (MPEC) have not been systematically studied. The inside of the solid wall becomes so called “Warm Dense Matter” where the details of the states should still be clarified.In our experimental setting up, the ablated plumes can be aligned orthogonally and can cross each other. The collision processes include Coulomb, elastic, molecular, and cluster collisions at the cross point. The characteristics of this experimental platform are introduced and attractive application is indicated.