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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.
Q. Qi, X. F. Wang, L. Q. Shi, L. Zhang, B. Zhang, Y. F. Lu, A. Liu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 4 | November 2011 | Pages 1483-1486
Interaction with Materials | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12712
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Helium atoms are introduced into Cu films at room temperature by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering in a He/Ar mixed atmosphere. The doped helium atoms are distributed evenly in the film and the content can be easily controlled by changing the process parameters. The structure of Cu films with trapped helium was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) technology. With increasing helium irradiation flux, the lattice spacing and width of diffraction peaks increased due to helium effects, corresponding to the increase of finite and infinite size defects in the film. The shape of thermal desorption spectrum (TDS) and the number of peaks strongly depended on the amount of helium introduced into Cu. With increase of helium content, helium release temperature decreases. At the same amount of helium, the peak temperature became higher with increase of heating rate and from this we can obtain a picture which could calculate the activation energy of helium desorption.
