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Fusion Science and Technology
February 2025
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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. H. Degnan, W. L. Baker, M. L. Alme, C. Boyer, J. S. Buff, J. D. Beason, C. J. Clouse, S. K. Coffey, D. Dietz, M. H. Frese, J. D. Graham, D. J. Hall, J. L. Holmes, E. A. Lopez, R. E. Peterkin, Jr., D. W. Price, N. F. Roderick, S. W. Seiler, C. R. Sovinec, P. J. Turchi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 27 | Number 2 | March 1995 | Pages 115-123
Experimental Device | Special Section: Pulsed High-Density Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30368
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Electromagnetic implosions of shaped cylindrical aluminum liners that remain at solid density are discussed. The approximate liner parameters have an initial radius of 3 to 4 cm, are 4 cm in height, and are ∼0.1 cm thick. The liners are driven by the Shiva Star 1300-µf capacitor bank at an 84-kV charging voltage and an ∼30-nH total initial inductance (including implosion load). The discharge current travels along the length of the liner and rises to 14 MA in ∼8 µs. The implosion time is ∼12 µs. Diagnostics include inductive current and capacitive voltage probes, magnetic probes, and radiography. Both right-circular cylinder and conical liner implosion data are displayed and discussed. Radiography indicates implosion behavior substantially consistent with two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic calculations, which predict inner surface implosion velocities exceeding 20 km/s, and compressed density of two to three times solid density. Less growth of perturbations is evident for the conical liner (∼1% thickness tolerance) than for the right-circular cylindrical liner (∼3% thickness tolerance).
