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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.
R. Gallix, J. W. Crippen, D. G. Czechowicz, A. C. Forsman, E. M. Giraldez, J. F. Hund, J. S. Jaquez, A. Q. L. Nguyen
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 51 | Number 4 | May 2007 | Pages 772-775
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1477
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For electricity production in a 1000 MW(e) Z-Pinch Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) power plant, a wire array must be produced and shot every second. The slow and painstaking manual assembly and insertion process developed for the present Z-Pinch experimental machines will have to be replaced with mass production and rapid auto matic handling. This could be facilitated by making one-piece, or unitized, wire arrays (UWA). This paper reviews potential UWA manufacturing processes; describes the results of etching, milling, laser-cutting, and lithography tests applied to an UWA design that could be shot on the Z-R machine for validation; assesses the feasibility of these processes for mass production; and proposes an alternate UWA design concept for easier manufacturing.
