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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.
A. Jerry Scott, Daniel E. Wessol, Jerry L. Judd
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 3 | Number 1 | January 1983 | Pages 129-136
Technical Paper | Blanket Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A20823
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The neutronic feasibility of testing fusing firstwall/blanket systems in a fission reactor is investigated. Heating rates resulting from a 14-MeV fusion source are calculated with one-dimensional transport theory for two tokamak blanket designs and compared with heating rates computed for the same blankets in the Engineering Test Reactor (ETR). The designs studied are a gas-cooled, liquid-lithium blanket with no neutron multiplier and a water-cooled, solid lithium-aluminate blanket with a beryllium multiplier. Based on these preliminary results, it is concluded that bulk heating rate profiles expected in tokamak reactor blankets can be simulated quite well in large (65- × 76- × 91-cm) blanket experiment modules placed on one side of the ETR core. Heating rates corresponding to tokamak wall loadings of 1 MW/m2 can be achieved, and the level varied to simulate the cyclic operation typical of tokamaks.
