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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.F. Bourque, W.R. Meier, M.J. Monsler
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 1465-1469
Inertial Fusion Reactor Studies | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29927
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Osiris reactor concept is one of two that emerged from the DOE-sponsored IFE reactor design study. It uses a heavy ion beam driver, a carbon cloth first wall and blanket structure that is filled with Flibe, and a steam power conversion system. The driver energy is about 5 MJ and the target yield is about 430 MJ. A 1000 MW(e) net plant requires a rep rate of about 4.6 Hz. The reactor chamber is of a leak-tolerant design where Flibe permeates a carbon cloth first wall and provides a protective coating. A Flibe spray, which supplies the pool at the bottom, condenses blowoff vapor. All components are removed as an assembly from the top of a carbon composite vacuum vessel. The study included assessments of environmental and safety aspects, economics, and technology development requirements.
