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Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.
Y. Sun et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 3 | October 2011 | Pages 899-904
Tritium Storage | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12562
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To efficiently confine the gaseous deuterium and tritium, which are the important fuels in the development of fusion energies, China has developed a series of hydrogen resistant stainless steels, named as the HR series of stainless steels. The mechanisms of the interactions between tritium with the decayed helium-3 and these stainless steels were investigated by theoretical calculations, experimental observations or tests through gaseous tritium loading into the stainless steels and years of storage. Results showed that the China made HR stainless steels had good performance to resist hydrogen damage or hydrogen embrittlement. They are the ideal structure materials for tritium systems used in a fusion reactor like ITER. Nevertheless, tritium permeation at high temperatures are still high. Tritium permeation barriers with the aluminides on the surface of the components were successfully developed, which could greatly reduce tritium permeation flux down to 2~3 orders of magnitudes.