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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.
Hans-Dieter Falter, Dragoslav Ciric, Andrea Celentano, Christopher M. Ibbott, Michael J. Watson, Masanori Araki, Satoshi Suzuki, Kazuyoshi Sato
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 29 | Number 4 | July 1996 | Pages 571-583
Technical Paper | Divertor System | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A30699
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Two vapotrons from the Joint European Torus (JET) actively cooled divertor design have been fitted by the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute with unidirectional high-conductivity carbon-fiber-composite tiles and have been tested in the JET Neutral Beam Test Bed. The test section showed excellent uniformity and accepted power densities up to 30 MW/m2 for equilibrium pulses. The surface temperature was 1100°C at 20 MW/m2. One tile detached at a power density of 25 MW/m2. A total of just under 300 pulses at power densities mostly between 20 and 30 MW/m2 have been fired onto the test sections without additional failure. The hydraulic parameters were as follows: water inlet temperature, 15 to 20°C; average water pressure in the component, 0.4 and 0.69 MPa; flow velocity, 6.9 and 7.5 m/s.
