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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.
T. Oishi, K. Yamazaki, Y. Hori
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 3 | October 2011 | Pages 1113-1116
Concept and Facility | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12610
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To model the fuel supply in nuclear fusion reactors with D-T burning plasmas, the relationship among the D/T fuel ratio, tritium consumption, and reactor output power is analyzed numerically using the TOTAL (toroidal transport analysis linkage) simulation code. In the case that a deuterium-rich pellet is employed, the amount of tritium to be injected to the reactor as the fuel can be reduced compared with the case when the D to T ratio is the same. The fusion output power can be adjusted by controlling the D/T ratio while the electron density is fixed. This control method of the output power by D/T ratio scan can save the tritium consumption compared with that by the density scan, especially in the cases with lower fusion output power.