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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.
K. Isobe, T. Yamanishi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 4 | November 2011 | Pages 1387-1390
Detritiation and Isotope Separation | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12689
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Ceramic electrolysis method that had been developed for tokamak exhaust processing can be applied for the process of highly tritiated water. Aiming to enhance the efficiency of ceramic electrolysis method, we developed new electrodes using cerium oxide (Ceria). We prepared electrodes by two manufacturing methods. One is to mix ceria into Pt paste and then electrode was sintering on the Yttria stabilized Zirconia (YSZ). The other is to use Ceria as intermediate layer between YSZ and Pt-YSZ electrode. In addition to this, different ceria concentrations of electrodes, 10%, 20% and 30%, were prepared for Ceria adding electrode. The water decomposition performance of such electrodes and usual electrode using Pt-YSZ was confirmed in different humidity at 1073K. Both electrodes using Ceria showed higher water decomposition performance than that of usual electrode. Especially, 30% ceria adding electrode showed highest performance and the decomposition efficiency was one order magnitude higher than that of usual electrode.