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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.
M. Kobayashi, N. Ohyabu, T. Mutoh, R. Kumazawa, Y. Feng, M. Shoji, T. Morisaki, S. Masuzaki, A. Sagara, R. Sakamoto, T. Seki, J. Miyazawa, T. Watanabe, M. Goto, K. Ideda, H. Kasahara, S. Morita, B. J. Peterson, N. Ashikawa, K. Saito, S. Sakakibara, T. Tokuzawa, Y. Nakamura, K. Narihara, I. Yamada, H. Yamada, A. Komori, O. Motojima, LHD Experimental Group
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 3 | October 2007 | Pages 566-573
Technical Paper | The Technology of Fusion Energy - High Heat Flux Components | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1549
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The divertor performance of LHD is studied for the two configurations, LID and HD. It is shown that the both divertor configurations play important roles for obtaining high performance plasmas in LHD: the large pumping capability of the LID to keep the low edge density in the IDB-SDC plasma, the large wetted area and the flexibility of strike point sweep of HD to reduce the power load on the divertor plates in long pulse operations. The possible effect of the ergodic layer on impurity retention in divertor is discussed by using the 3D edge transport modelling. It is found that the drag force exerted by the plasma flow can dominate over the thermal force, providing the impurity retention effect. The further changes needed to improve the current divertor configurations are discussed. New divertor designs for the future upgrade of LHD and for a LHD-type reactor are presented.
