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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.
William Kuan, Mohamed A. Abdou, R. Scott Willms
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 28 | Number 3 | October 1995 | Pages 664-671
Tritium Processing | Proceedings of the Fifth Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion, and Isotopic Applications Belgirate, Italy May 28-June 3, 1995 | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30480
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Dynamically simulating the fuel cycle in a fusion reactor is crucial to developing a better understanding of the safe and reliable operation of this complex system. In this work, we propose a tritium processing system for ITER'S plasma exhaust. The dynamic simulation of this proposed system is then performed with the TRUFFLES (TRitiUm Fusion Fuel cycLE dynamic Simulation) model. The fuel management, storage, and fueling operations are developed and coupled with previous cryopump and fuel cleanup unit subsystems to fully realize the complete torus exhaust flow cycle. Results show that tritium inventories will vary widely depending upon reactor operation, individual subsystem and unit operation designs. A diverse collection of batch-controlled subsystems with changes in their processing parameters are simulated in this work. In particular, the effects from the fuel management subsystem's fuel reserve and tank switching times are quantified using sensitivity studies.