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Latest News
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.
B. J. Kern, D. L. Sadowski, S. M. Ghiaasiaan, S. I. Abdel-Khalik
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 4 | November 2007 | Pages 958-962
Technical Paper | Inertial Fusion Technology: Drivers and Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1618
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Compressible two-phase (liquid/gas) jets have been proposed as a means of protecting the chamber walls in high-yield, low repetition rate, Z-Pinch IFE reactor systems. The aspect ratio (height-to-thickness/diameter ratio) of such jets is expected to be large, so that the void fraction may vary significantly along the flow direction. An experimental investigation was conducted to determine the effect of various design and operational parameters on the void fraction distribution within a planar, downward-flowing, two-phase (liquid/gas) free jet. An air/water jet with an initial cross section of 1.0 cm × 10.0 cm was used, and different liquid inlet velocities and gas-to-liquid volumetric flow rate ratios were tested. Local void fractions at different locations along the width and length of the jets were measured by gamma-ray densitometry. The results indicated that buoyancy caused significant slip between the two phases, leading to the conclusion that homogeneous two-phase flow models cannot accurately model the behavior of such jets. The data obtained in this investigation can be used to validate predictions of mechanistic models for jet dynamics and shock attenuation.
