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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.
Jungchung Jung
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 3 | November 1983 | Pages 566-585
Special Section Contents | Radioactivation of Fusion Structures | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22808
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Activation analysis has been conducted for several primary fusion blanket materials based on a model of a commercial tokamak fusion reactor design, STARFIRE. The blanket materials studied include two solid tritium breeders, viz., Li20 and α-LiAl02, and four candidate structural materials, viz., PCA stainless steel, V15Cr5Ti, Ti6Al4V, and Al-6063 alloys. The importance of breeder material activation is identified in terms of its impurity contents such as potassium, iron, nickel, molybdenum, and zirconium trace elements. The breeder activation is also discussed with regard to its potential for recycling and its impact on the lithium resource requirements. The structural material activation is analyzed based on two measures, volumetric radioactivity concentration and contact biological dose due to decay gamma emission. Using the radioactivity concentration measure, it is revealed that a substantial advantage exists from a viewpoint of radwaste management, which is inherent in fusion reactor designs based on potential low-activation alloys such as V15Cr5Ti, Ti6Al4V, and Al-6063. On the other hand, from the dose standpoint, the V15Cr5Ti alloy is found to be the only alloy for which one could realize a significant dose reduction (below 2.5 mrem/h) within ∼100 yr after shutdown, possibly by some extrapolation on alloy purification techniques.
