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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.
E. Valmianski, R. W. Petzoldt
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 51 | Number 4 | May 2007 | Pages 800-803
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1483
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Mechanical response of DT targets to acceleration was analyzed using the finite element method for Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) targets and for smaller targets that have been proposed for an upcoming Fusion Test Facility (FTF). Analysis was done in the temperature and acceleration regions of interest for Inertial Fusion Energy (14-19 K and 1,000-10,000 m/s2). In these ranges, von Mises stress distribution, axial deflection, and the minimum value of support membrane attachment angle as well as free vibrations of the target after it leaves the injector were calculated. The role of the outer polymer coating, the support membrane attachment angle and the DT void pressure in the mechanical response of a DT target to acceleration was considered. Analysis shows, assuming that DT mechanical properties are equivalent to D2, that IFE and FTF targets should withstand acceleration of up to 10,000 m/s2 with negligible deformation.
