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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.
Owen N. Jarvis, Edward W. Clipsham, Malcolm A. Hone, Brian J. Laundy, Mario Pillon, Massimo Rapisarda, Guy J. Sadler, Pieter van Belle, Karl A. Verschuur
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 20 | Number 3 | November 1991 | Pages 265-284
Technical Paper | Experiment Device | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29668
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The time dependence of the 2.5-MeV neutron emission from the Joint European Torus (JET) is reliably measured using fission chambers. The absolute calibration of these chambers is required to an accuracy of 10% or better for a range of intensities that may cover six or more decades. At JET, this calibration is now achieved by use of activation techniques, the most convenient of which involves fissionable materials (thorium and uranium) and delayed neutron counting. Because delayed neutron counting is unfamiliar in the fusion community, particular care is taken to obtain confirmation of the results based on this method by comparison with measurements made using the conventional activation procedure (involving indium, nickel, and zinc as target materials). As the activation measurements can be influenced appreciably by the weak emission of 14-MeV neutrons, this contribution is measured separately using high threshold energy activation reactions (in copper and silicon). Neutron transport calculations are employed to relate the measured local fluences of both 2,5- and 14-MeV neutrons to the total yields from the plasma. Absolute calibration accuracies of 6 and 8% are claimed for 2,5- and 14-MeV neutron yields, respectively; the accuracy of the 14-MeV to 2,5-MeV yield ratios is 6%.