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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.
K. Niu, S. Kawata
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 11 | Number 2 | March 1987 | Pages 365-373
Technical Paper | Fusion Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/FST87-A25014
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Twelve Marx generators, with a total stored energy of 26.4 MJ and a diode voltage of 10 or 5 MV, supply the energy to diodes to extract proton beams. A combination of two types of diodes is used. One diode type is insulated by the radial magnetic field and extracts the rotating ring beam. The other type is the ordinary magnetically insulated one, from which the proton beam fills the inner hollow part of the rotating beam. The argon gas filling the reactor cavity neutralizes the charge of the proton beams, but does not neutralize the current of the beams. The proton beam pinches to a small radius by the azimuthal magnetic field, and its propagation is stabilized by the axial magnetic field. The cryogenic 6-mm-radius hollow shell target consists of three layers of lead, aluminum, and deuterium-tritium fuel. The target is imposed by a biased voltage of −1 MV in order to focus the proton beams on the target surface. The ion temperature and pR of the fuel after the target implosion reach 4.2 keVand 7.0 g/cm2, respectively. Thus the 2.5-GJ output energy is released from a target. The reactor is an ADLIB type, which consists of an inner rotating cylinder and an outer fixed cylinder. Inside the inner rotating cylinder, the Flibe flows, acting as coolant and tritium breeder. The net plant efficiency is expected to be 33%, and the 800-MW(electric) net power can be supplied from one reactor with a 1-Hz operation frequency.