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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.
R. Paul Drake
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 3 | Number 3 | May 1983 | Pages 405-415
Technical Paper | First-wall Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A20864
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Data from the Tandem Mirror Experiment (TMX) and other recent research show how to control plasma/wall interactions in tandem mirrors (TMs). Based on current knowledge, plasma/wall interactions will not limit the performance of TM reactors—either at the end walls or the radial walls. Magnetic field expansion and gas pumping can be used to regulate the plasma conditions at the end wall. Specifically, in TMX the plasma density at the end wall was found to be ≈2 × 109 em −3, whereas the end-plug density was ≈2 × 1013 cm−3; also, the sheath potential at the wall (8 V) was <10% of the end-plug electron temperature. The "natural divertor" effect-by which positively charged plasmas in magnetic mirror machines exhaust particles and energy to the end wall—can be used to both control the plasma conditions at the radial walls and divert impurities to the end wall. These techniques, the data that support them, and needed areas of further research are discussed.
