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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.
C. E. Kessel, F. M. Poli
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 1 | January 2015 | Pages 220-239
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-793
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The conservative physics and conservative technology tokamak power plant ARIES-ACT2 has a major radius of 9.75 m at an aspect ratio of 4.0 and has strong shaping with elongation of 2.2 and triangularity of 0.63. The plasma current is 14 MA, and the toroidal field at the plasma major radius is 8.75 T, making the maximum field at the toroidal field coil 16 T. The no-wall βN reaches ∼2.4, limited by n = 1 external kink mode, and can be extended to 3.2 with a stabilizing shell behind the ring structure shield. The bootstrap current fraction is 77% with a q95 of 8.0, requiring ∼4.0 MA of external current drive. This current is supplied with 30 MW of ion cyclotron radio frequency/fast wave and 80 MW of negative ion neutral beams. Up to 1.0 MA can be driven with lower hybrid (LH) with no wall, and 1.5 or more MA can be driven with a stabilizing shell. Electron cyclotron was examined and is most effective for safety factor control over ρ ∼0.2 to 0.6 with 20 MW. The pedestal density is ∼0.65 × 1020/m3, and the temperature is ∼9.0 keV. The H98 factor is 1.25, n/nGr = 1.3, and the net power to LH threshold power is 1.3 to 1.4 in the flattop. Because of the high toroidal field and high central temperature, the cyclotron radiation loss was found to be high depending on the first-wall reflectivity.