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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. Piovan, L. Novello, A. De Lorenzi, E. Gaio, F. Milani
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 3 | October 2007 | Pages 403-407
Technical Paper | The Technology of Fusion Energy - Experimental Devices and Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1521
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A test facility for a full-scale prototype of the Neutral Beam Injector (NBI) for ITER is planned to be built in Padova, Italy, in the framework of the European activities in support of ITER. Two possible sites were considered: the site hosting RFX (Reversed Field eXperiment), connected to the 400-kV transmission network, and the site hosting the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), connected to the 132-kV network. Analyses have been made to evaluate the impact on the two HV networks due to the additional NBI load. A particular aspect was studied in detail: during the NBI operation, very frequent accelerator grids breakdowns are expected, requiring fast de-energization of the main power supplies, followed by voltage re-application in about 50 ms; this can cause active and reactive power steps and consequent voltage fluctuations (flickers) on the HV networks. The analyses are described in the paper and the main results reported and discussed.
