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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.
Malcolm W. McGeoch, Patrick A. Corcoran, Robert G. Altes, Ian D. Smith, Stephen E. Bodner, Robert H. Lehmberg, Stephen P. Obenschain, John D. Sethian
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 32 | Number 4 | December 1997 | Pages 610-643
Technical Paper | Special Section: Plasma Control Issues for Tokamaks / ICF Driver Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST97-A19908
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A detailed KrF amplifier model is first benchmarked against new data and then used to design higher-energy modules with segmented pumping. It is found that segmentation with unpumped regions does not carry with it any penalty in efficiency because the distributed geometry has reduced losses from amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) that counteract the fluorine absorption of unpumped regions. A 68-kJ module is designed, incorporating a new water line geometry and a combined switch/bushing. The electrical parameters of the module are calculated in detail. The effect of multiplexed beam-line energy on facility size is discussed, and an energy of 100 to 200 kJ is found to be optimal. Two 68-kJ modules are combined in a 136-kJ multiplexed beam line, incorporating incoherent spatial imaging, that fits within a compact beam tunnel. A total of 16 such beam lines are arranged on four floors to deliver 64 beams to a target; the net energy is 2.0 MJ. Detailed calculations of prepulse ASE energy are given, and the levels are designed to be low enough not to initiate a prepulse plasma. The basic geometrical uniformity of target illumination is shown to be better than 0.3% for a 64-beam illumination geometry that has a high degree of symmetry. A test of the 68-kJ module would be necessary to verify the projected specific laser energy and facilitate more detailed design of this fusion laser.