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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.
Heui Kyeong An, Eue Jin Jeong, Jae Hwa Hong, Youngpak Lee
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 27 | Number 4 | July 1995 | Pages 408-416
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactions in Solid | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30361
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Earlier experiments suggested that large differences in heat release between the two sides of a palladium electrode coated with gold on one side and manganese oxide on the other cause observed electrode deformation with high-pressure D2 gas loading in an electrolysis-like cell Similar experiments were repeated using heavy water electrolysis. Palladium/titanium coatings on one side and gold coating on the other were made for the preparation of the palladium electrodes. Biaxial bending, partial discoloration, and microcracks of palladium electrodes were observed after 18 days of electrolysis. Analysis of the deformed palladium cathodes was performed. It was discovered that to convert this configuration to a practical energy-producing cell, a coating technique must be found to reduce outward diffusion of deuterium, i.e., to maintain a high D/Pd ratio over longer periods of time.