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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. Hiwatari, K. Okano, Y. Ogawa
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 3 | October 2011 | Pages 1092-1095
Concept and Facility | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12605
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We discuss the applicability of the commissioning scenario without the initial tritium inventory to Demo-CREST. Analysis on MHD stability and current drive property (i.e., NBI injection power, its injection region, the driven current profile, etc.) makes clear the potential to start up the plasma operation without the initial tritium inventory. The critical issue on the core plasma operation is the high confinement of HH=1.57. We also discuss the tritium dead inventory in the plasma area. The key for the commissioning period without the initial tritium inventory is found to be the increment of the dead inventory. Finally, the required commissioning period is estimated at 75~110 days for the net TBRDT=1.05. That possibility strongly depends on the increment of the dead inventory, and understanding the tritium behavior not only in the plasma region but also in other tritium subsystem is important.