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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.
J.P. Smith, C. Baxi, E. Reis, L. Sevier
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 1658-1661
Plasma Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29959
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A cryocondensation pump was designed for the baffle chamber of General Atomics DIII-D tokamak and will be installed in the fall of 1992. The purpose of the pump is to study plasma density control by pumping of the divertor. The pump is toroidally continuous, approximately 10 m long and located in the lower outer corner of the vacuum chamber of the machine. It consists of a 1 m2 liquid helium-cooled surface surrounded by a liquid nitrogen-cooled shield to limit the heat load on the helium-cooled surface. The liquid nitrogen-cooled surface is surrounded by a radiation/particle shield to prevent energetic particles from impacting and releasing condensed water molecules. A thermal enhancement coating was applied to the nitrogen shell to lower the maximum temperature of the shell. The coating is non-continuous to keep the toroidal electrical resistance high. The whole pump is supported off the water-cooled vacuum vessel wall. Supports for the pump were designed to accommodate the thermal differences between the 4K helium surface, the 77 K nitrogen shells, and the 300 K vacuum vessel supporting the pump and to provide a low heat leak structural support. Disruption loading on the pump was analyzed and a finite element structural analysis of the pump was completed. A testing program was completed to evaluate coating techniques to enhance heat transfer and emissivity of the various surfaces. Fabrication tests were performed to determine the best method of attaching the liquid nitrogen flow tubes to their shield surfaces and to determine the best alternative to fabricating the different shells of the pump. A prototype sector of the pump was built to verify fabrication and assembly techniques.