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Latest News
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, J. P. Blanchard, A. Davis, L. El-Guebaly, N. Ghoniem, P. W. Humrickhouse, S. Malang, B. J. Merrill, N. B. Morley, G. H. Neilson, M. E. Rensink, T. D. Rognlien, A. F. Rowcliffe, S. Smolentsev, L. L. Snead, M. S. Tillack, P. Titus, L. M. Waganer, A. Ying, K. Young, Y. Zhai
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 2 | September 2015 | Pages 225-236
Technical Paper | Proceedings of TOFE-2014 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-953
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The proposed Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF) represents the first facility to enter the complex fusion nuclear regime, and its technical mission and attributes are being developed. The FNSF represents one part of the fusion energy development pathway to the first commercial power plant with other major components being the pre-FNSF research and development, research in parallel with the FNSF, pre-DEMO research and development, and the demonstration power plant (DEMO). The Fusion Energy Systems Studies group is developing the technical basis for the FNSF in order to provide a better understanding of the demands on the fusion plasma and fusion nuclear science programs.
