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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.
Laila A. El-Guebaly
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 2128-2132
Blanket Shield and Neutronic | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A30035
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The ARIES study investigates the potential of tokamaks as fusion power reactors and focuses on improving the economic and safety features of fusion by integrating the environmental constraints into the design from the beginning. The ARIES-II and ARIES-IV designs incorporate advanced physics and technologies that would be available over the next 5–20 years. The two designs have the same plasma physics but different fusion-power-core designs.1 ARIES-II uses liquid Li as a coolant/breeder with V alloy structure while ARIES-IV employs solid breeder with He coolant and SiC/SiC composite structure. Low activation materials were utilized in the design to reduce the radioactive inventory. A variety of blanket/shield options was examined for both designs and the relative merits of the various materials as a function of blanket/shield thickness were demonstrated. The lifetime of the structural components was determined based on the radiation-induced damage in V and SiC. In this paper, a comparison between the two designs based on detailed neutronics analysis is presented.
