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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.
R.S. Matsugu, J.C. Lehman, L. Borowski, P. Ladd
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 1634-1639
Material and Tritium | Proceedings of the Ninth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Oak Brook, Illinois, October 7-11, 1990) | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29575
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A Tritium Filling Station to charge Inertial Confinement Fusion laser target microballoons with an equimolar mixture of tritium and deuterium has been designed, fabricated and pre-commissioned. The University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics will use the apparatus to produce targets for irradiation by their OMEGA glass laser. Microballoons are filled by diffusion through their walls. Each microballoon will hold about 5 millicuries of tritium in a deuterium-tritium mix at pressures of up to 15,000 kpa (2,200 psia). The maximum system tritium inventory is 10,000 curies.a Tritium and deuterium are stored in uranium beds. After retrieval from the beds, the deuterium-tritium mixture is assayed and transferred to the microballoon charging vessel via a unique palladium diffuser regulator. All components are housed in an inert atmosphere glove box with a getter-based purification system. The system design basis is presented with a description of mechanical and electrical components. Experience with the manufacture of tritium compatible equipment and subsequent system shop testing is described.