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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.
George Tsotridis, Hans Rother
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 27 | Number 4 | July 1995 | Pages 389-400
Technical Paper | First-Wall Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30359
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Plasma disruptions infusion reactors lead to high-energy deposition for short periods of time, causing melting of the first wall. A two-dimensional transient computer model has been developed that, by solving the equations of motion and energy, predicts the depths and the motion of the molten layers in small beam simulation experiments. It is demonstrated that convective flows caused by variations of surface tension—due to changes in material chemistry and surface temperature—play an important role in determining the depth and flow intensities of the molten layers. The calculated shapes and depths of the molten layers for Type 316 stainless steel have been compared with available experimental results and found to be in good agreement.
