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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.
Martin Lochter, Reinhard Uhlemann, Jochen Linke
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 4 | July 1991 | Pages 2101-2111
Technical Paper | Carbon Material Special | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29346
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The high heat flux ion beam test facility at Forschungszentrum Jülich can produce peak power densities of 0.14 to 12 kW/cm2 for pulse lengths of 10 ms to 15 s. Longer pulses up to steady-state operation are possible with reduced power. The total ion beam power can be varied between 70 kW and 6 MW at particle energies of 10 to 60 keV. The particles are hydrogen and helium. The beam illuminates a 1300-cm2 area, which allows a large area for materials tests. The rise time of the beam pulses can be adjusted between 2 and 200 ms, and the pulse repetition rate is between 1 and 5 min. The test facility is equipped with a sample manipulator with a vacuum lock that allows a sample size of 15 × 10 cm with active or passive cooling. The extensive diagnostic system of the test stand, originally designed for developing and conditioning the neutral beam ion sources for the Tokamak Experiment for Technology Oriented Research (TEXTOR), and the diagnostic system of the sample manipulator are described. The results of a materials test series performed for the development of wall materials for the Next European Torus/International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (NET/ITER) are shown. Possible upgrades of the facility are also discussed.
