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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.
F. L. Chong, J. L. Chen, X. B. Zheng
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 3 | April 2012 | Pages 236-239
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-350
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tungsten coating as a plasma-facing material on copper alloys is an important issue of a tokamak fusion device. Tungsten tile was created by means of plasma-spraying technology. The properties of the tungsten coating are as follows: low porosity of 4.7%, [approximately]92% of the theoretical tungsten bulk density, and high thermal conductivity of [approximately]79.7 W/mK, which are interesting properties for the plasma-facing material. To alleviate the stress concentration, the tile was designed with rounded edges with a radius of 5 mm. The fatigue performance of the tungsten tile was tested at 5 MW/m2 in an electron beam facility. No damage was observed after 38 cycles at 250 s per cycle. It is concluded that the rounded-edge design is helpful in reducing the maximum stress and in improving the resistant heat load property, which was proved by finite element analysis.
