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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.
Harold R. Garner, Takashi Aoki
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 9 | Number 3 | May 1986 | Pages 481-483
Technical Paper | Experimental Device | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24734
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A significant improvement in plasma parameters (ion temperature and electron temperature) has been achieved through the use of pulse discharge cleaning in the mirror machine, RFC-XX-M, in Nagoya, Japan. The essence of this technique is to use pulsed-off-resonance ion cyclotron heating (10-ms duration every 10 s), gas puffing, and electron cyclotron heating preionization in conjunction with baking (to 100 to 150°C) in order to prepare the machine surfaces for full-power normal experimental shots. It was also found that RFC-XX-M could operate at nearly full parameters without titanium gettering after discharge cleaning, whereas without discharge cleaning and titanium gettering it is difficult to sustain a plasma.
