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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.
K. Takahashi, K. Kajiwara, Y. Oda, K. Sakamoto, T. Omori, M. Henderson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 4 | May 2015 | Pages 718-731
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-830
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Development of an electron cyclotron equatorial launcher has proceeded with a series of prototype tests and design enhancements intended to improve reliability and functionality of the launcher. The design enhancements include adaptation of the launcher steering angles such that one of three beam rows of the launcher is necessarily flipped to perform counter current drive to conform to a new ITER physics requirement. Also, the top and bottom steering rows have been tilted at an angle of 5 deg so that the top and bottom beam rows can be accessed from on-axis to near midradius. Furthermore, the position of the fixed focusing mirror that forms a quasi-optical in-vessel millimeter-wave (mm-wave) transmission line is modified to increase the nuclear shielding capability. A high-power experiment of the mm-wave launching system mock-up fabricated based on the design confirmed a successful steering capability of 20 to 40 deg. It was measured that some stray radio-frequency power propagated in the beam duct and generated some heat on the duct. Prototype tests also include the fabrication of the blanket shield module and partial port plug mock-up and have shown no serious technological issue regarding the fabrication and cooling functionality.
