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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.
Glenn Gerdin, Donald Mueller, Bernard W. Wehring
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 7 | Number 2 | March 1985 | Pages 180-196
Technical Paper | Experimental Device | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A24533
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method is proposed to measure the properties of the alphas escaping a deuterium-tritium-fueled magnetically confined fusion reactor. This method is called the charge neutralization approach; it involves the slowing down of alphas in carbon foils of known thickness so that a significant percentage of the alphas are neutralized. These alphas can be detected by methods similar to those developed for charge-exchange neutral analysis. The foils would be placed in a recessed slot in the foil holder that would, in turn, be placed in the shadow of the limiter to reduce the heat and particle flux to the foils. Considerable energy selection can be achieved by varying the foil thickness; the lower limit on detectable alpha energy is ∼200 keV. The ratio of alpha signal to nuclear noise was estimated for a ZnS scintillator 15 μm thick being operated in the current mode in a borated limestone shield. Experimental values were used for the response to neutrons, and linear absorption coefficients were used for the response to gammas. The alpha wall flux was that calculated for a Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) with Q = 1, a plasma current of 2.5 MA, and a minor radius of 85 cm; the radiation fluxes were scaled from the one-dimensional calculations of L-P. Kufor TFTR at Q = 1. For this example, the signal to nuclear noise ratio becomes greater than unity at ∼75 cm into the shield indicating the amount of shielding material required.