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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.
Dongxun Zhang, Teruya Tanaka, Takeo Muroga
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 4 | November 2011 | Pages 1576-1579
Interaction with Materials | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12735
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Metal organic decomposition (MOD) Er2O3 coating for tritium permeation barrier was fabricated on two ferritic steels with dip-coating method. The interfacial layers, which were formed by the oxidation of the substrates, were found under the coating with different compositions and thickness according to the elemental depth profile of XPS. Their formations depended on the substrate materials (JLF-1: Fe-9Cr-2W based reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steel; SUS430: 18Cr based commercial ferritic steel) and the baking atmosphere (air or Ar). The main reason could be selective oxidation of main elements in the substrates at high temperature with the different baking atmosphere. For the coated JLF-1 samples, the surface smoothness and the hydrogen barrier performance of Er2O3 coatings were improved significantly by changing the baking atmosphere from air to Ar. The composition change in the oxidized interfacial layer from iron oxide to chromium oxide may be the reason for the improved surface smoothness and permeation barrier performance.
