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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.
Robert F. Bourque
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 3 | Number 3 | May 1983 | Pages 493-497
Technical Note | Blanket Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A20871
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It is found that flowing liquid Pb83Li17 eutectic can be used as both tritium breeder and blanket coolant in fusion reactors with high-power densities and strong transverse magnetic fields provided the channel walls are rendered electrically insulated, either by use of a nonconducting material or with a nonconducting coating over a metallic material. Examples are given for the Ohmically Heated Toroidal Experiment, STARFIRE, and Riggatron fusion reactor conceptual designs.