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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.
G. W. Barnes, R. Persing, G. Schmidt, M. Gouge, L. Baylor, M. Cole, S. Combs, D. Fehling, P. W. Fisher, C. Foust, S. Milora, L. Qualls
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 1662-1664
Plasma Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29960
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Tritium Pellet Injector (TPI) is a cryogenic pellet injector which will be used on TFTR prior to and during the D-T phase of operations. The injector will replace the current Deuterium Pellet Injector (DPI) at Bay T with an injection capability for pellets of deuterium and/or tritium or mixtures of both. The gun will be a 4 barrel configuration (replacing the existing 8 barrel system) with one of the barrels capable of high speed. Pellet acceleration will be accomplished pneumatically using high pressure helium and hydrogen gas. The injector has one cylindrical pellet per barrel per shot with each barrel independent of the others. Velocity of the pellets when they are injected into the plasma for the single stage gun will be 1.5 km/sec which is variable from .5 to 1.5 km/sec. For the Two-Stage gun velocities will be 3.0 km/sec. The TPI program is a collaborative effort between Oak Ridge National Laboratories and Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. The TPI program provides a cryogenic tritium pellet injection capability by the Spring of 1993. The project is divided into 2 Phases. Phase 1 which supports deuterium operation and Phase 2 which supports tritium operation. Phase 1 is scheduled for implementation during the Spring of 92 with deuterium operation from April through September of 1992. A very important part of Phase 1 is to verify that the systems required for Phase 2 that are operational will be tested as part of the deuterium effort. Phase 2 is scheduled for implementation and will make the TPI tritium capable by the end of April 1993. ORNL responsibilities include assembly and design of the injector line, development of the injector control system and modification of the gas manifolds. PPPL'S tasks is the system engineering and interface of supporting systems for the operation of the injector during deuterium and also during the tritium phase of operations. This paper will address the mechanical design of the TPI injection facility provided by PPPL with the TFTR machine.