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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. Martin Taccetti, Thomas P. Intrator, Frederick J. Wysocki, Katherine C. Forman, Donald G. Gale, Sean K. Coffey, James H. Degnan
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 41 | Number 1 | January 2002 | Pages 13-23
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST02-A196
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Two experiments showing continuous, real-time measurements of the radial convergence of a high-aspect-ratio aluminum flux conserver are presented. These results were obtained by measuring the compression of both axial and radial components of an internal low-intensity magnetic field. Repeatable flux conserver compressions of this type, uniform to 10:1 compression ratio, form a step toward achieving magnetized target fusion, where a plasma of appropriate temperature and density would be introduced into the flux conserver for compression to fusion conditions. While X radiographs show this compression ratio was achieved, the magnetic field probe signals were cut off earlier. Axial component measurements resulted in compression ratios of 7:1 and 6.3:1, for the first and second compressions, before the magnetic probe signals were lost. Radial component measurements disagree with the axial probe results. Although the discrepancy between axial and radial probe measurements is not completely understood, possible explanations are presented.