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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.
Scott W. Haney, L. John Perkins, John Mandrekas, Weston M. Stacey, Jr.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 18 | Number 4 | December 1990 | Pages 606-617
Alpha Particles in Fusion Research | doi.org/10.13182/FST90-A29253
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Work involving the selection and burn stability control of near-ignited operating points f or the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is described. Using simple volume-averaged zero-dimensional transport models, it is suggested that ITER operation at high densities (1 to 2 × 1020/m3) and low temperatures (6 to 10 keV) may be necessary, or even desirable, even though these plasma parameters are intrinsically thermally unstable. It is argued that these thermal instabilities can be effectively controlled using active feedback based on standard diagnostic signals. In particular, the physical and technological feasibility of three control methods, modulation of neutral beam power, modulation of fueling rate, and controlled injection of impurities, is considered, and recommendations regarding the applicability of these methods to ITER are made.
