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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
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Latest News
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. Herbermann, V. Calia J. Erickson, S. Fixler T. Luzzi, D. Sedgley, W. Barr, R. Moir
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 279-283
Fusion Systems Studies | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22881
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An End Plasma System was designed for the MARS tandem mirror reactor. This includes an electrostatic direct converter, a halo plasma scraper, a vacuum pumping system, and a vacuum enclosure. The converter recovers 327 MW of electrical power and absorbs 239 MW of thermal power from the charged particle energy in the plasma fans. The system provides the vacuum pumping necessary to remove the helium ash, accompanying fuel ions, and impurities present in the reactor. It also provides a means to control the central cell plasma potential relative to the first wall.
