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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.
Jason Oakley, Mark Anderson, Ed Marriott, Jesse Gudmundson, Kumar Sridharan, Virginia Vigil, Gary Rochau, Riccardo Bonazza
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 4 | November 2007 | Pages 943-947
Technical Paper | Inertial Fusion Technology: Drivers and Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1615
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A liquid pool, with and without void fractions, was subjected to dynamic compression testing in a vertical shock tube to model the bubbly-pool concept being considered for use in an inertial fusion energy reactor. Water and oil were used to model the FliBe coolant that collects at the bottom of the chamber and serves as first wall protection at that location. The experiments (shock strengths M = 1.4, 2.0, and 3.1) were conducted in atmospheric pressure argon, and argon was bubbled through the liquid to achieve void fractions of 5-15% in the 30.4 cm deep pool. Pressure measurements were taken in the pool at intervals of 2.54 cm to measure the effect of void fraction on the pool compression and the compression wave traveling through the liquid. The presence of the gas voids in the liquid had a strong effect on the dynamic pressure loading but did not reduce the shock impulse significantly at the low and intermediate Mach numbers, but did exhibit a mitigating effect at the higher shock strength. A very high void fraction foam was also studied that resulted in a 22% reduction of the shock wave impulse.