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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.
N. A. Tahir, D. H. H. Hoffmann
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 29 | Number 1 | January 1996 | Pages 171-177
Technical Paper | ICF Target | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A30664
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
One-dimensional numerical simulations are presented of the compression and thermonuclear burn of a radiation-driven, reactor-size inertial fusion target that uses a substantially reduced tritium level. A parameter study of thermonuclear energy output is carried out in which the tritium content of the target is systematically reduced. The energy output is found not to be sensitive to a reduction in the tritium content of the target by up to 50%, which means that the tritium inventory in the reactor system could be substantially reduced. Moreover, the tritium fractional burn in low tritium targets is found to be much higher compared with equimolar deuterium-tritium targets. Therefore, the process of evacuation of the target debris from the reactor chamber after each shot will be much cleaner in the former case compared with the latter. These results can have very important implications for the safety and environmental acceptability of future inertial fusion reactor systems.