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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.
R. K. Buddu, N. L. Chauhan, P. M. Raole
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 65 | Number 2 | March-April 2014 | Pages 248-254
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-662
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Austenitic Type 316L stainless steel plates of very large thicknesses are considered for use in vacuum vessel fabrication in advanced fusion reactors. The possible options for welding of higher-thickness plates are multipass tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, narrow gap–TIG welding, and electron beam welding (EBW). The manufacture of double-wall vacuum vessel inner components like keys, shells, and ribs are planned to be fabricated using EBW, and some components like field joints are to be fabricated using TIG welding processes. The present paper reports the fabrication of 60-mm-thick Type 316L stainless steel welded samples with multipass TIG welding and EBW processes and sample property characterization studies. The fabricated weld samples have been tested for weld defects with nondestructive tests using X-ray radiography and ultrasonic scan tests. The welded samples have been characterized for mechanical properties such as tensile, bend, Vickers hardness, and Charpy V-notch impact tests. Microstructure analysis has been carried out for both welded samples for the base metal, heat-affected zone, and weld zone. Impact-tested sample fracture analysis has been done by scanning electron microscopy.