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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.
J. R. Easoz, R. Bajaj, R. E. Gold, J. W. H. Chi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 780-784
Blanket and First Wall Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22955
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper reports work performed under Program Element I (PE-I) of the First Wall, Blanket, and Shield Program, the principal objectives of which are the testing of first wall design concepts to support the design of fusion reactor first walls and the verification of analytical techniques and design tools. The test facility, ESURF, consists of a 36 kW continuous duty electron beam, evacuated target chamber, and a 6.9 MPa water loop for active cooling of test pieces. Long pulse “steady state” surface heat loads are simulated by rastering the beam in two dimensions, while disruption heat loads are simulated by imposing a focused, stationary beam for a fixed length of time on the target area. Initial test pieces consisted of stainless steel (Type 316) tubes. Tests to date have included thermal-hydraulic characterization of the specimens, thermal cycling up to 500 cycles, disruption heat load simulations, and combined disruption heat loads with thermal cycling. The test results reported here address the verification of predicted thermomechanical response of the specimens, the effects of disruption heat loads on surface melting and crack formation, and the affect of thermal cycling on crack formation/propagation.