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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.
C. P. C. Wong, V. S. Chan, A. M. Garofalo, R. Stambaugh, M. E. Sawan, R. Kurtz, B. Merrill
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 62 | Number 1 | July-August 2012 | Pages 283-288
Fusion Technology Facilities | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Fusion Reactor Materials, Part A: Fusion Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A14148
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A fusion nuclear science facility (FNSF) is a necessary complement to ITER, especially in the area of material and component testing needed for DEMO design development. FNSF-AT, which takes advantage of advanced tokamak (AT) physics, should have neutron wall loading of 1-2 MW/m2 , continuous operation for periods of up to 2 weeks, a duty factor goal of 0.3 per year, and an accumulated fluence of 3-6 MW-yr/m2 ([approximately]30-60 dpa) in 10 years to enable the qualification of structural, blanket, and functional materials, components, and corresponding ancillary equipment necessary for the design and licensing of a DEMO. Base blankets with a ferritic steel structure and selected tritium blanket materials will be tested and used for the demonstration of tritium sufficiency. Additional test ports at the outboard midplane will be reserved for test blankets with advanced designs or exotic materials and electricity production for integrated high-fluence testing in a DT fusion spectrum. FNSF-AT will be designed using conservative implementations of all elements of AT physics to produce 150-300 MW of fusion power with modest energy gain (Q < 7) in a modest-sized normal conducting coil device. It will demonstrate and help to select the DEMO plasma-facing, structural, tritium-breeding, and functional materials and ancillary equipment including diagnostics. It will also demonstrate the necessary tritium fuel cycle, design and cooling of the first wall chamber, and divertor components. It will contribute to the knowledge on material qualification, licensing, operational safety, and remote maintenance necessary for DEMO design.