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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.
M. Matsukawa, H. Ninomiya, H. Horiike, N. Hosogane, R. Yoshino
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 1624-1629
Plasma Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29952
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper describes the design modifications to the plasma feedback control system, including power supply, for the Upgrade of JT-60. One of the major design issues was to be able to change the kind of control command for the thyristor converter from voltage to current and vice versa at any time during the discharge. Another one was to adopt a faster control system with 250µs response for stabilization of plasma vertical position, even in plasmas with high elongation of 1.8. These modifications improved the plasma controllability especially at initiation and made protecting the poloidal field coil system easier when the plasma disrupts. The high flexibility of the control system led to the achievement of a 4MA plasma after only 2 weeks of JT-60U operation.
