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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 13 | Number 2 | February 1988 | Pages 290-332
Technical Paper | Heavy-Ion Fusion | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25106
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The requirements, desirable characteristics, trade-offs, and design constraints are discussed for commercial heavy-ion fusion (HIF) reactor plants with induction linear accelerator (Linac) drivers. The trade-offs and the design constraints when the reactor plant requirements and desirable characteristics conflict with those for other HIF power plant systems are described. The reactor plant concepts included in the Heavy-Ion Fusion Systems Assessment (HIFSA) are discussed in relation to these requirements, characteristics, trade-offs, and constraints. Four reactor plant concepts were included in the HIFSA studies to provide large ranges of reactor repetition rate and target yield accommodation (1 to 20 Hz and 150 to 3000 MJ). This permitted thorough exploration of the impact on HIF cost of electricity (COE) of the high repetition rate and efficiency advantages of induction Linacs. Contrary to pre-HIFSA expectations, large plants with large driver repetition rates and multiple reactors are not required for attractive COE: Repetition rates <10 Hz in 1000-MW(electric) one-reactor plants are competitive. More than one HIF reactor plant concept shows promise: The minimum COE estimates for the four concepts in 1000-MW(electric) plants range from 55 to 75 mill/kW-h. Cost and/or technological problems in one part of reactor operating parameter space need not be fatal for HIF: The estimated COE is within 5% of the minimum over wide ranges of the repetition rate and the target yield for a fixed plant size and reactor concept.