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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.
G. W. Shuy, D. Dobrott
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 252-257
Alternate Fuels | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22877
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A conceptual tandem-mirror reactor (TMR) configuration consists of a solenoidal central-cell with its ends plugged by a combination of electrostatic and magnetic fields. The magnetic fields in the end plug also provide MHD stability. The electrostatic plugs for ions and electrons are created by combining hot electron plasmas and neutral beams for fueling and pumping. A large negative potential may be formed in the end plug to contain central cell electrons, but the central cell floating potential ϕf is driven negative as charge neutrality is maintained. Cat-d TMR plasma performance is assessed with respect to standard (positive), neutral and negative central cell potential operating modes. It is determined that the plasma. Q for a 2000 MW fusion power reactor is peaked for central cell potential ϕf near zero. This is because on one hand, the ion-loss cone is bigger for positive ϕf and the ion plug electrons must overcome larger ϕf + ϕc and hence more ECH is required to build the ion plug, and, on the other hand, the electron loss-cone is bigger for negative ϕf and synchrotron losses are severe. A zero-dimensional plasma physics model for the density and power balance of a Cat-d TMR has been developed from an existing code that models a d-t TMR operating with a positive central cell potential. The new Cat-d code models all potential operating modes and has been benchmarked.