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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.
John H. Pendergrass
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 11 | Number 3 | May 1987 | Pages 732-748
Technical Paper | KrF Laser | doi.org/10.13182/FST87-A25045
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
KrF laser intrinsic efficiency increases modestly with increase in losing medium temperature up to at least a few hundred degrees Celsius. Such temperatures are high enough to permit efficient generation of electric power from the large amounts of heat that must be continuously removed from the losing medium of a repetitively pulsed KrF laser in an inertial confinement fusion power plant. The effects of power generation from losing medium heat on netplant efficiency and effective laser efficiency were investigated in a generic systems analysis. Two approaches to efficient, cost-effective generation of electric power from losing medium heat were analyzed in detail: (a) dedicated power generation systems that use losing medium heat as the sole thermal energy source and (b) the use of lasing medium thermal energy to heat main-plant steam cycle feedwater. Feedwater heating gives higher generation efficiencies and is more cost-effective than a dedicated system. Electric power generated from lasing medium heat typically increases power plant efficiency by 2 to 3% absolute and the effective KrF laser efficiency by 2 to 3% absolute. Electric power from losing medium can be used to reduce the fusion power required for a fixed netplant electric power typically by 4 to 5%.
