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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.
Monya A. Lane
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 15 | Number 2 | March 1989 | Pages 778-782
ICF Reactors and Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST89-A39789
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Target design, fabrication and handling are central to the design of a Laboratory Microfusion Facility (LMF). Both direct and indirect drive target designs are being considered. This paper will address the target issues for the LMF concept, for the case of direct drive targets. Current direct-drive designs call for uniform liquid DT layers to be contained in a low density hydrocarbon foam shell at 20–25°K, or uniform solid DT layers to be created on the interior of a solid shell at about 19°K. A conceptual plan for LMF target fabrication is presented which addresses many of the issues raised by this new generation of ICF targets. Since these targets will require a cryogenic environment until they are imploded, solutions to a number of problems including temperature stability, fill methods for various target designs, tritium supply, target transport, and target alignment must be integrated into a single cryogenic system which maintains the target over its lifetime. The simultaneous solution of all these issues will require a complex facility capable of integrating technologies ranging from foam chemistry to novel cryogenics. This paper outlines the requirements on such a facility as well as many solutions under consideration.