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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.
J. Boscary et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 64 | Number 2 | August 2013 | Pages 263-268
Divertor and High-Heat-Flux Components | Proceedings of the Twentieth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE-2012) (Part 1), Nashville, Tennessee, August 27-31, 2012 | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-499
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The actively water-cooled plasma facing components (PFCs) of the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator consisting of the first wall protection and the divertor systems have a total surface area of about 265m2. The complex 3D geometry of the plasma and plasma vessel with 244 vessel ports dedicated to diagnostics, heating systems and water-cooling pipe-work together with the need to minimize the space taken and the significant heat loads expected on the components presents significant design and manufacturing challenges.The actively water- cooled divertor, made of 100 target modules, has an area of 19 m2. Each target module is formed from target elements made of CFC flat tiles bonded with the bi-layer technology to CuCrZr heat sinks. In total 16,000 tiles are bonded to the 890 target elements. A full-scale target module prototype has been manufactured to validate the design, the selected technological solutions and the inspection methods to be used in the serial module fabrication.About 30% of the target elements have been delivered and the production of the remaining elements should be completed by 2014. The fabrication of the components of the first wall protection, 320 stainless steel panels and 170 heat shields, is almost completed.
