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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.
T. Kurasawa, R. A. Verrali, O. D. Slagle, G. W. Hollenberg
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 931-937
Blanket Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29463
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The BEATRIX-II experiment in FFTF is an in-situ tritium recovery experiment to evaluate the tritium release characteristics of Li2O and its stability under fast neutron irradiation to extended burnups. This experiment includes two specimens: a thin annular ring specimen capable of temperature transients and a solid temperature gradient specimen. During the first 85 days of the operating cycle of the reactor, the tritium recovery rate of a temperature transient capsule was examined as a function of temperature, gas flow rate, gas composition and burnup. Temperature changes in the range from 500 to 650°C resulted in decreasing tritium inventory with increasing temperature. Lower gas flow rates resulted in slightly lower tritium recovery rates while gas composition changes affected the tritium recovery rate significantly more than either flow rate or temperature changes. Three different sweep gases were used: He-0.1% H2, He-0.01% H2, and pure He. Decreasing the amount of hydrogen in the sweep gas decreased the steady-state recovery rate by as much as a factor of two. A temperature gradient capsule is more prototypic of the conditions expected in a fusion blanket and was designed to provide data that can be used in evaluating the operational parameters of a solid breeder in a blanket environment. The operation of this canister during the first 85 EFPD cycle suggests that Li2O is a viable solid breeder material.