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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. T. Fisher, J. W. Leachman
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 64 | Number 3 | September 2013 | Pages 525-529
Fusion Technologies: Heating and Fueling | Proceedings of the Twentieth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE-2012) (Part 2) Nashville, Tennessee, August 27-31, 2012 | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A19146
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Twin screw extrusion is anticipated to meet the pellet fueling demands of tokamak fusion devices. The twin-screw design principle has been proven by a functional prototype extruder at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); however numerical models necessary for design optimization have yet to be validated due to system complexity. Characteristic measurements of solid flow during extrusion are difficult for any extruder and are exacerbated by the cryogenic environment necessary to solidify solid hydrogen. In this paper, we first discuss current modeling efforts to establish needs for experimental measurements and then present the design and construction status of a diagnostic twin-screw extruder to address these needs. Development is underway of a mass transfer analysis that predicts volumetric efficiency and augments an existing 1st order model of extrudate temperature. These predictive models are necessary for design and operation of hydrogenic twin screw extruders for fueling tokamaks, including ITER.
