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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.
Yuto Takeuchi, Yasushi Yamamoto, Satoshi Konishi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 3 | October 2007 | Pages 756-760
Technical Paper | The Technology of Fusion Energy - Nonelectric Applications | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1581
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The paper proposes a conceptual design of hydrogen production system with unused biomass wastes and steam generated from high temperature nuclear power systems including fusion reactor. A reaction of interest is expressed as a formula, (C6H10O5)n + nH2O => 6nH2 + 6nCO, which is accompanied by a large quantity of endothermic reaction. Basic experiments have been made of thermal decomposition of cellulose, specimen as biomass resource, with the aid of high temperature steam of 1000 deg C heated by an infrared image furnace. The endothermic quantity was evaluated from a numerical model in which measured temperatures are employed. The numerical results for endothermic quantity agreed well with the theoretical value of 816 kJ/mol. To discuss the technical feasibility of the present process, the conceptual design of a hydrogen production reactor system of heat exchanger type was made with the numerical results and heat transfer correlations for helium and steam flow. The present biomass based process, producing both electricity and more hydrogen than other processes such as water or steam electrolysis using an equivalent quantity of heat source, is characterized as an efficient hydrogen production method using nuclear thermal energy, which simultaneously contributes to reduce biomass wastes.