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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.
P. K. Mioduszewski, L. W. Owen, D. A. Spong, M. E. Fenstermacher, A. E. Koniges, T. D. Rognlien, M. V. Umansky, A. Grossman, H. W. Kugel
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 51 | Number 2 | February 2007 | Pages 238-260
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1302
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Plasma boundary control in stellarators has been shown to be very effective in improving plasma performance and, accordingly, is an important element from the very beginning of the National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) design. Studies of the magnetic field topology outside the last closed magnetic surface (LCMS) indicate the possibility of many toroidal revolutions of field lines launched within a couple of centimeters of the LCMS. Field line connection lengths, typically in the order of 100 m, should be sufficient to allow for the necessary separation of divertor and separatrix temperatures. In the top and bottom of the bean-shaped cross section (toroidal angle = 0), a field expansion of >5 is observed, which will help to spread out the heat flux on limiters and divertor plates. Plasma-facing components (PFCs) will be developed systematically according to our respective understanding of the NCSX boundary; the phased PFC development will start out with a set of limiters and has the eventual goal to develop a divertor with all the benefits of impurity and neutrals control. Neutrals calculations have been started to investigate the effect of neutrals penetration at various plasma cross sections, especially at the location of = 0 deg. Advanced wall conditioning techniques, as employed in other major fusion devices, will be incorporated in the NCSX operation.