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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.
B. Constantinescu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 28 | Number 3 | October 1995 | Pages 1317-1320
Design, Operation, and Maintenance of Tritium System | 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-A30593
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Opportunities for a triton induced nucleosynthesis program using low energy (0–500 keV) beams from dedicated small accelerators are presented. The program is necessary because the role of tritons in the process of light elements primordial nucleosynthesis, via 4He(t, γ)7Li, 7Li(t, n)9Be and 9Be(t,n)11B reactions, is an important discriminator for the two essential models of the Universe formation: standard (homogeneous) Big Bang model (SM) and inhomogeneous Big Bang model (IM). Some aspects concerning necessary experimental conditions - intense triton beams with high energy resolution, stability and reproducibility are briefly discussed. Accelerating intense triton beams imposes severe safety regulations. The intention to use for such a program the electrostatic accelerator, based on rotating disks-DISKTRON D400-4HVG, of the Bucharest Cyclotron Laboratory is presented. Technical requirements for the tritium systems of the accelerator are discussed in two variants: non-intense (<100 nA on the target) triton beams (tritium inventory up to 10 Ci) and intense (> 1µA on the target) triton beams (tritium inventory up to 11 kCi).
