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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.
Santiago Cuesta-Lopez, J. M. Perlado
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 2 | August 2011 | Pages 590-594
IFE Design & Technology | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12447
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We report non-equilibrium Molecular Dynamics simulations providing a nanoscale view for the modeling of shock wave generation, propagation and melting in single crystalline materials Fe, Ta, W, of clear interest for Nuclear Fusion Technology. Our methodology successfully uses massive parallel molecular dynamics in an attempt to cover similar times and length scales as laser-shock experiments. Response of the materials are analyzed in terms of modern atomistic visualization and evolution of their structural properties. Preliminary results point that Wand Ta behave more efficiently in terms of uniformity under shock propagation than lighter materials like Fe. This kind of materials must attract our attention in the short term as possible designs in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) targets.
