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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.
Shunsuke Yoshimura, Ryosuke Yoshimura, Makoto Okada, Satoshi Fukada, Yuki Edao
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 3 | April 2015 | Pages 658-661
Proceedings of TRITIUM 2013 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-T104
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Hydrogen transfer under a fluidized condition of Li-Pb is investigated experimentally to design a Li-Pb blanket system. Li-Pb eutectic alloy flows through inside of a Ni tube in the experimental system, where H2 permeates into and out of the forced Li-Pb flow. The overall H2 permeation rate is analyzed using a mass balance model. Hydrogen atoms diffuse in Ni and Li-Pb. The steady-state H2 permeation rate obtained by this experiment is smaller than the result of the calculation model. A resistance factor is introduced to the present analysis in order to evaluate the influence of other H2 transfer mechanisms, such as diffusion in Li-Pb and dissolution reaction between Ni and Li-Pb. The contribution of the resistance to the overall H2 permeation rate becomes large when the flow rate of Li-Pb is low. This is because the boundary layer thickness between Ni and Li-Pb affects the overall H2 permeation rate. When the flow velocity of Li-Pb is large, the thickness of the boundary layer becomes thin, and the driving force of H2 permeation through Ni wall becomes large.
