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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.
W. Brian Clarke
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 40 | Number 2 | September 2001 | Pages 147-151
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A189
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The 3He and 4He concentrations in 2- to 6-mg samples of palladium-black from the interior of Arata-style cathodes were investigated using a tungsten wire furnace on-line to an ultrahigh sensitivity static mass spectrometer. The detection limit of the mass spectrometer was ~104 atoms 3He and 108 atoms 4He, and the mass resolution of 1 part in 620 was sufficient to cleanly resolve 3He from H3 and HD. Three specimens of palladium-black (A, B, and C) were from hollow Pd cathodes that had generated excess heat in D2O electrolysis experiments carried out by Arata and Zhang in their laboratory. One specimen of Pd-black (D) had not been used in any electrolysis experiment. A total of twelve samples, three from each specimen, were analyzed. The 3He and 4He concentrations were variable as if due to sample inhomogeneity. Two samples (C-1 and B-1) showed apparent 4He of 4.4 × 109 atoms/mg and 6.6 × 109 atoms/mg, respectively, and three (A-3, B-2, and D-3) showed excess 3He from 77 to 1096 × 103 atoms/mg relative to the atmospheric 3He/4He ratio. Seven samples showed no apparent excess of 3He or 4He. Five samples of the aluminum foil used to wrap Pd-black samples were also analyzed and gave mean values of 13 ± 18 × 103 atoms/mg and 1.50 ± 0.66 × 109 atoms/mg for 3He and 4He, respectively. The values for Al and Pd-black are comparable to the 1978 results of Mamyrin, Khabarin, and Yudenich, who examined helium isotopes in many ordinary metals and other materials including Al and Pd. At present, there is no evidence for the very much larger concentrations (1016 to 1017 atoms/mg) of 3He and 4He that Arata and Zhang claim to have detected in similar specimens of Pd-black from Pd cathodes subjected to D2O electrolysis.