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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.
C. J. Lasnier, S. L. Allen, J. A. Boedo, M. Groth, N. H. Brooks, A. McLean, B. LaBombard, C. H. Skinner, D. L. Rudakov, W. P. West, C. P. C. Wong
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 53 | Number 2 | February 2008 | Pages 640-666
Technical Paper | Plasma Diagnostics for Magnetic Fusion Research | doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1682
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this chapter we review numerous diagnostics capable of measurements at or near the first wall, many of which contribute information useful for safe operation of a tokamak. Infrared cameras, visible and vacuum ultraviolet cameras, pressure gauges and residual gas analyzers, thermocouples, and erosion and deposition measurements by insertable probes, quartz microbalances, and a rather extensive review of Langmuir probes are discussed. Also discussed are dust measurements by electrostatic detectors, laser scattering, visible and infrared cameras, and manual collection of samples after machine opening. In each case the diagnostic is discussed with a view toward application to a burning plasma machine such as ITER.
