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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.
Dakshinamoorthy Sathiyamoorthy, T. Mohanty, K. Srinivas, D. Selvaraj, D. D. Thorat
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 2 | February 2012 | Pages 159-166
Technical Paper | First Joint ITER-IAEA Technical Meeting on Analysis of ITER Materials and Technologies | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13383
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
High-purity beryllium in the form of spherical pebbles of size ranging from 0.2 to 2 mm are required for neutron multiplication in the test blanket module of the helium-cooled solid breeder in ITER. The pebbles should be dense and have stringent chemical composition to withstand a high-temperature and irradiation environment. Hence, the conventional method of preparing beryllium pebbles has to be modified to a novel technique such as the rotating electrode process (REP). In the present paper REP modeling, design, and selection of process parameters to control the particle size have been carried out. Based on the results on the preparation of surrogate stainless steel spherical pebbles, beryllium pebbles have been prepared by REP, and the results obtained are presented. The important parameters that affect the pebble size and production rate are found to be anode diameter, material constants, revolutions per minute, arc gap, and the cooling cover gas in the REP chamber. The pebbles once formed are kept in levitated condition in the chamber for achieving near-perfect spherical shape. This paper also focuses on beryllium pebble handling with respect to safety and industrial hygiene control as per the prescribed international standard.