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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.
Yuji Hatano, Andrei Busnyuk, Alexander Livshits, Hirofumi Homma, Masao Matsuyama
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 4 | November 2007 | Pages 990-994
Technical Paper | Tritium, Safety, and Environment | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1623
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Niobium is a potential candidate of tube material in vacuum permeator for tritium recovery from Pb-17Li liquid blanket system. From this viewpoint, the permeation of hydrogen through a Nb membrane was investigated with an ultra-high vacuum apparatus under the conditions relevant to the blanket system where no oxide films could be retained on the membrane surfaces. It was, however, found that the permeation rate sharply decreased with increasing oxygen concentration in the bulk of membrane; at upstream H2 pressure of 1 Pa and membrane temperature of 700°C, for example, the permeation rate at oxygen concentration corresponding to oxygen potential in Pb-17Li (0.054 at%) was evaluated to be 1/5 of the value expected from hydrogen solubility and diffusivity in Nb. Such small permeation rate was ascribed to the presence of oxygen monolayer formed by surface segregation from the bulk. Surface modification by Pd coating was found to give only limited improvement due to degradation in coating effect induced by interdiffusion between Pd and Nb. Methods to improve the high temperature stability of Pd coating was discussed.
