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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.
M. Yokoyama, H. Maassberg, C. D. Beidler, V. Tribaldos, K. Ida, F. Castejón, T. Estrada, A. Fujisawa, T. Minami, T. Shimozuma, Y. Takeiri, J. Herranz, S. Murakami, H. Yamada
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 50 | Number 3 | October 2006 | Pages 327-342
Technical Paper | Stellarators | doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1254
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The characteristics of core electron-root confinement (CERC) in helical devices are illustrated using results from four different experiments: the Compact Helical System, Large Helical Device, TJ-II, and Wendelstein 7-AS. Common features include strongly peaked electron temperature profiles and large positive radial electric fields Er in the core region for discharges with sufficient central electron cyclotron heating (ECH). Such observations are consistent with a transition to the electron-root solution of the ambipolarity condition for Er, a feature of neoclassical theory that is unique to nonaxisymmetric configurations. The magnetic topology of the configuration plays a role in this transition, and thresholds are found for the particle density and ECH power, in accordance with neoclassical expectations. Neoclassical theory alone cannot explain all observations, however, as CERC formation can also be influenced by ECH-driven convective fluxes of localized electrons and by the presence of magnetic islands in the core region. This is the first report describing collaborative activities within the framework of the International Stellarator Profile Data Base.