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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.
Babulal Gopalapillai et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 113-118
Fusion | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13406
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
ITER is a joint international fusion facility which is being built in France to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power. ITER will pave the way for the commercial exploitation of nuclear fusion to meet the ever increasing energy needs of mankind. Fusion power at ITER is generated using a Tokamak machine in which burning plasma inside the vacuum vessel at temperatures in excess of 150 million °C is confined by magnetic fields. The heat energy generated from the Tokamak and the auxiliary systems is removed by the Cooling Water System (CWS). The cooling water system is designed to remove the total peak heat load of about 1100 MW to the atmosphere by circulating approximately 25,000 m3 of water of diverse chemical specifications in multiple loops.The design of the cooling water systems considers occupational health and safety, nuclear safety, radiation protection, and environmental protection requirements. Minimizing environmental impact is a major factor in demonstrating the viability of fusion energy as a future energy source. This paper presents the features in the design of CWS for making it environmentally friendly.
