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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.
Magdi M. H. Ragheb, Andrew C. Klein, Charles W. Maynard
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 1 | Number 1 | January 1981 | Pages 99-119
Technical Paper | Fusion | doi.org/10.13182/FST81-A19919
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Three-dimensional Monte Carlo neutronics calculations for the last mirror-beam duct system for a laser-driven fusion power reactor conceptual design, where a three-section duct with focusing mirrors and right angle bends for the last two beam reflections is modeled. The estimate of neutron leakage flux after the second beam reflection is on the order of 1014 n/(m2⋅s). Even though less in magnitude than the flux at the end point of neutral beam injectors in tokamak designs, reported in the range of 1017 n/(m2⋅s), this still leads to a neutron dose rate of 106 remjh after the second beam bend. Since space is not at a premium as in the case of magnet shields for magnetic confinement systems, minimum-cost lead mortar or concrete can be used as shielding materials instead of other minimum-thickness costly materials. An energy leakage rate of 4.6 MW of 14-MeV neutrons per beam precludes the use of concrete behind the last mirror, suggesting the use of a secondary blanket composed of a lead acetate solution with immersed Boral (Al + B4C) sheets. Boral as a penetration shielding material is found to reduce the thermal group flux around the penetration by two to three orders of magnitude, compared to aluminum, and is recommended as a duct lining material for both inertial and magnetic fusion systems. Neutron heating rates and radiation damage parameters for the duct liner compare to those at the front face of the last mirror and first wall, and will require similar elaborate thermal-hydraulic and mechanical designs.