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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.
A. A. Yukhimchuk, A. S. Khapov, I. P. Maksimkin, V. V. Baluev, I. E. Boitsov, A. V. Vertey, S. K. Grishechkin, V. G. Kiselev, I. L. Malkov, R. K. Musyaev, V. V. Popov, D. T. Sitdikov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 3 | April 2015 | Pages 662-665
Proceedings of TRITIUM 2013 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-T105
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The article presents results of comparative tests for determination of deuterium fluxes permeating through walls of austenitic stainless steel AISI304 (DIN 1.4301) chamber and Al2O3 based ceramic F99.7 chamber. Both chambers represent a piece of Ø26x Ø22x117 mm3 tube with spherical bottom ending. It is shown that at 773 K and deuterium pressure of 1200 mbar the permeated deuterium flux through the stainless steel chamber constituted 8∙10-5cm3/s, while the flux through ceramic one it did not exceed the sensitivity of the measurement method threshold, namely ~1.5∙10-7cm3/s. The ceramic chamber turned out to survive more than 103 cycles of heating up to 773 K with no damages. It did not lose its impermeability up to 10 bar of internal deuterium pressure. The authors also present test results of a prototype bed for reversible tritium storage. The bed’s case was made of alumina based ceramic F99.7, titanium being used as tritide making metal and high frequency induction used for heating of tritide metal.
