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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. M. Fuller, B. A. Cramer, J. R. Haines, J. Kirchner, B. A. Engholm, M. Seki
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 1089-1094
Blanket and First Wall Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A23003
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Major design goals for FED-R are the achievement of (1) a high level of neutron exposure of the test modules and (2) a capability for rapid changeout of test modules. 1,2 A major factor in rapid changeout is perceived to be the location of the vacuum boundary. In FED-R this boundary was set at the first wall so that module changeout did not require the plasma chamber to be brought up to atmosphere. Efforts to realize these goals in the design resulted in a neutronically thin outboard wall for the vacuum vessel constructed of 316 stainless steel (SS) with helium as a coolant. A normalized 14-MeV neutron transmission of 0.82 is expected, with an inlet pressure of 2 MPa and a pumping power requirement of 8.7 MW. Other options considered in the study were aluminum as a wall material and water and sodium potassium (NaK) as coolants.
