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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.
Kenzo Munakata, Yoshinori Kawamura
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 62 | Number 1 | July-August 2012 | Pages 71-76
Hydrogen/Tritium Behavior | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Fusion Reactor Materials, Part A: Fusion Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A14115
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Cryogenic adsorption is effective for the recovery of low-concentration hydrogen isotopes in bulk helium gases. In a fusion power plant, application of this process is foreseen for the recovery of tritium from the blanket sweep gas and cleanup of the helium discharge exhaust gas. The authors performed a screening test to find more suitable adsorbents for the recovery of hydrogen isotopes from the bulk helium gas at liquid nitrogen temperature. The screening test indicated that a natural mordenite adsorbent has a quite high adsorption capacity for hydrogen under a helium atmosphere. For the adsorption of deuterium, it was found that the natural mordenite adsorbent possesses a high adsorption capacity even at the lower pressure range of hydrogen and deuterium. The adsorption rates of hydrogen and deuterium were quantified by analyzing breakthrough curves obtained in experiments. Evaluated effective pore diffusivities of hydrogen isotopes in the mordenite adsorbents are considerably higher than those in MS5A adsorbents. Thus, it can be said that the natural mordenite adsorbents are suitable for adsorption of hydrogen isotopes from the viewpoint of adsorption rates, as well. The results suggest that mordenite-type adsorbents are promising for the recovery of low-concentration hydrogen isotopes from the helium bulk gas.
