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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.
C. C. Baker
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 15 | Number 2 | March 1989 | Pages 849-857
ITER Nuclear Design | doi.org/10.13182/FST89-A39800
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper summarizes nuclear-related work in support of the U.S. effort for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Study. Primary tasks carried out during the past year include design improvements of the inboard shield developed for the TIBER concept, scoping studies of a variety of tritium breeding blanket options, development of necessary design guidelines and evaluation criteria for the blanket options, further safety considerations related to nuclear components, and issues regarding structural materials for an ITER device. The blanket concepts considered are the aqueous/Li salt solution, a water-cooled, solid-breeder blanket, a helium-cooled, solid-breeder blanket, a blanket cooled by helium containing lithium-bearing particulates, and a blanket concept based on breeding tritium from He3.
