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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.
B. K. Shukla, K. Sathyanarayana, D. Bora, Sanjay V. Kulkarni, Sampa Gangopadhyay, Y. S. S. Srinivas, P. L. Khilar, Mahesh Kushwah, R. G. Trivedi, S. Rajashree, Barnali Pal, Anil Bhardwaj, D. Rathi, B. R. Kadia, Ashish Patel, Chetan Virani, Harsida Patel, H. M. Jadav, K. G. Parmar, P. Shah, A. R. Makwana, Sunil Dani, P. Kirit, M. Harsha, J. Soni, RF Group
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 50 | Number 4 | November 2006 | Pages 551-560
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1279
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An electron cyclotron resonance heating system is commissioned on Aditya tokamak to carry out pre-ionization, start-up, and heating experiments. A high-power microwave source (gyrotron), capable of delivering 200-kW cw power at 28 ± 0.1 GHz, is commissioned successfully using a water dummy load for pulsed operation. The output mode of the gyrotron is TE02. The output power of the gyrotron is measured using microwave probe couplers, a spectrum analyzer, and calorimetric techniques. A hardwired interlock operates a rail-gap-based crowbar system in less than 10 s under fault condition and protects the gyrotron. The rail-gap crowbar operation has been qualified with the high-voltage power supply by performing a 10-J wire-burn test prior to energizing the gyrotron.A transmission line consisting of matching optic units, dc break, polarizer, miter bend, and corrugated waveguides terminates with a boron nitride window. The total attenuation in the line is measured to be less than 1.1 dB. Based on quasi-optical theory, a beam launcher is designed, fabricated, and tested for ultrahigh-vacuum compatibility prior to commissioning on tokamak.After successful operation of the gyrotron on the dummy load, the gyrotron output has been coupled to the ADITYA tokamak, and successful breakdown of neutral gas is observed without assistance from an ohmic transformer.
