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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.
B. Curwen, L. H. Franklin
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 1373-1377
Magnet Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A23048
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Ohmically Heated Toroidal Experiment (OHTE) is a toroidal pinch magnetic confinement plasma experiment which has been operating at GA Technologies (GA) since February 1981. In its original form, plasma current was induced by an air core induction or ohmic heating coil driven by a capacitor bank. Preliminary study revealed that greater plasma currents and pulse lengths could be achieved more economically by converting to an iron core rather than by installing additional capacitors. Therefore an iron core with a 3 volt-second capability and a stepped configuration was designed, fabricated and incorporated into the OHTE experimental device as part of a planned upgrade. To facilitate handling and installation, the iron core was fabricated in 28 segments consisting of 14 lower and 14 identical upper segments. Space limitations in the center of the machine created by existing geometry limited the flux path to approximately 1.28 m diameter or 1.296 m2. Using a stacking factor of 90% and allowing 3 mm between segments results in a true iron cross section of 1.12 m2. Each segment was fabricated by continuously winding in a “clockspring fashion” around a hardwood former Armco electrically oriented steel, 0.35 mm thick and 88 mm wide. Interspaced between laminations is insulating paper 0.02 mm thick and 88 mm wide bonded to the steel using a structural epoxy adhesive continuously applied during winding. After winding and curing, support saddles consisting of hardwood and aluminum were bonded to the segments. The segments were then cut into two identical halves on a large vertical milling machine. To eliminate electrical shorts, all machined surfaces were etched with a dilute nitric acid solution, then painted with a moisture repelling high dielectric strength epoxy spray paint to eliminate lamination to lamination creepage and surface corrosion.