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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.
Takeo Nishitani, Mikio Enoeda, Masato Akiba, Toshihiko Yamanishi, Kimio Hayashi, Hiroyasu Tanigawa
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 4 | November 2007 | Pages 971-978
Technical Paper | Tritium, Safety, and Environment | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1620
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) plays a role of the principal institute in Japan for the design and the development of a solid breeder (WCSB) blanket and a helium cooled solid breeder (HCSB) blanket, in the ITER Test Blanket Modules (TBM) programt. The WCSB and HCSB modules consist of reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steel, F82H, as the structural material, Li2TiO3 as the tritium breeder material, beryllium or Be-Ti alloy as the neutron multiplier. One of the R&Ds for the WCSB TBM, the mockup of the first wall with embedded cooling channels was fabricated by applying HIP technique. Pebbles of Be12Ti, which is a candidate material for the advanced neutron multiplier, were produced by a small-scale rotating electrode method. Mechanical and chemical properties and irradiation effects have been studied for Be12T pebbles. Both oxidation and steam interaction were about 1/1000 as small as those of beryllium metal, which indicates a possibility to reduce a risk of a water or air ingress accident. The test schedule of TBMs is discussed according to the ITER operation phases.
