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Fusion Science and Technology
February 2025
Latest News
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.
A. Reiman, S. Hirshman, S. Hudson, D. Monticello, P. Rutherford, A. Boozer, A. Brooks, R. Hatcher, L. Ku, E. A. Lazarus, H. Neilson, D. Strickler, R. White, M. Zarnstorff
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 51 | Number 2 | February 2007 | Pages 145-165
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1296
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Equilibrium issues encountered in the design of the National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) are discussed, focusing particularly on equilibrium magnetic islands. Significant improvements have been made to the VMEC equilibrium code to deal with numerical challenges at the low aspect ratios characterizing the NCSX design. Modifications to the PIES code have increased its speed, allowing routine evaluation of flux surfaces for candidate configurations. An optimizer has been built around the PIES code for healing magnetic islands, modifying the coil shapes to suppress resonant components of the magnetic field while preserving desired physics and engineering properties. The modified coils produce improved flux surface quality for a range of configurations. Neoclassical effects, which are not included in the PIES calculations, are estimated using a cylindrical model and are found to further reduce island widths significantly.
