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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.
S. Tosti, A. Colombini, V. Violante, G. Simbolotti
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 28 | Number 3 | October 1995 | Pages 755-760
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-A30495
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A computer model has been developed to evaluate tritium permeation to coolant and in vanadium tubes inventory in Safety and Environmental Assessment of Fusion Power (SEAFP) blanket. The mean tritium partial pressure in gaseous breeder phase are in the range from 0.5 to 5 Pa for helium purge gas velocity from 0.1 to 0.4 m/s; in these conditions the tritium permeation to coolant changes from 32.8 to 16.4 g/day and the tritium inventory in vanadium tubes from 4000 to 2000 g. The H/T ratio involves a relevant tritium permeation variation: with 0.2 m/s helium purge gas velocity varying the H/T ratio from 100 to 50 the tritium permeation to coolant ranges from 23.2 to 32.7 g/day. The analysis shows that defects free thin permeation barriers (SiC and Al2O3) are very effective to making negligible the tritium permeation to coolant and the tritium inventory in tubes.
