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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.
Peter Hubberstey, Tony Sample, Anne Terlain
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 28 | Number 3 | October 1995 | Pages 1194-1199
Tritium Properties and Interaction with Material | 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-A30571
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The thermodynamic stabilities of various barrier materials and the self-healing of aluminide coatings in oxygen saturated Pb-17Li have been evaluated. Binary nitrides and carbides are stable, but binary oxides display diverse behaviour; Al2O3 and MgO are stable, Cr2O3 is unstable to reduction to chromium metal and SiO2 exhibits intermediate properties. Ternary oxides behave similarly, but are intrinsically more stable, their stabilities increasing with Li2O content. Self-healing of aluminide barriers should occur to form either Al2O3 or LiAlO2, the latter being favoured. For Fe-rich Fe-Al solid solutions, self-healing is dependent on their aluminium content; at 723 K, Al2O3 or LiAlO2 formation only occurs for xAl≥1.69 mol% Al or xAl≥0.20 mol% Al, respectively.