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Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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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.
S. Bhandarkar, J. Reynolds, S. Letts, S. Baxamusa, E. Lindsey
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 2 | March-April 2013 | Pages 177-189
Technical Paper | Selected papers from 20th Target Fabrication Meeting, May 20-24, 2012, Santa Fe, NM, Guest Editor: Robert C. Cook | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-TFM20-33
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It is well known that control of the intricate surface topography details of the ablator capsule over a wide range of modes is critical for inertial confinement fusion (ICF). Whereas considerable effort has been expended on making the ablator capsule rounder and smoother during its fabrication, it is only more recently that attention has been drawn to particulate contamination on the surface of the capsule that can also contribute to undesirable Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities. In this paper, we explore new methods for cleaning the soft polymeric capsule in the presence of the attached filltube just before its assembly into the final target. These constraints, in conjunction with the extremely demanding specification for the size and the number of particles allowed per specification, present unique challenges and require the implementation of specialized cleaning techniques. Here, we describe the strengths and limitations of these methods and lay out the platform for implementing these into production on the National Ignition Facility (NIF).