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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.
Junghee Kim, P. Andrew, R. Reichle
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 2 | February 2012 | Pages 185-196
Technical Paper by Monaco ITER Postdoctoral Fellows | First Joint ITER-IAEA Technical Meeting on Analysis of ITER Materials and Technologies | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13386
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Plasma-wall interaction in fusion devices is unavoidable and leads to material erosion, dust formation, and tritium retention. Erosion of plasma-facing material and generation of dust inside ITER can significantly affect the operation. This is because the total in-vessel dust and tritium inventories during an operational campaign are required to be below limits of 1000 and 1 kg, respectively, imposed by safety considerations. To ensure respect of these limits, dust and tritium inventories should be monitored during the operational campaign of ITER. The level of erosion will be monitored by laser ranging techniques. To manage the dust inventory, local dust monitors from a number of locations will measure local dust concentration and accumulation. An additional important issue is dust lying on hot surfaces. In terms of safety, "hot dust" inventory is also strictly limited. Several techniques have been proposed to monitor the hot dust amount. Finally, the in-vessel tritium inventory must be limited and monitored. Assessment of the deficit in the tritium fuel supply is a way of measuring in-vessel tritium retention; however, this will have to be complemented by local surface analysis. Several diagnostic methods are introduced and compared with each other in order to find the most promising ITER-relevant concepts.