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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.
R. S. Massey, R. G. Watt, P. G. Weber, G. A. Wurden, D. A. Baker, C. J. Buchenauer, L. C. Burkhardt, T. Cayton, J. N. DiMarco, J. N. Downing, R. M. Erickson, R. F. Gribble, A. Haberstich, R. B. Howell, J. C. Ingraham, E. M. Little, G. Miller, C. P. Munson, J. A. Phillips, M. M. Pickrell, K. F. Schoenberg, A. E. Schofield, D. M. Weldon
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 1 | July 1985 | Pages 1571-1580
Alternative Concept | Proceedings of the Sixth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (San Francisco, California, March 3-7, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A39985
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The present status of research on the ZT-40M Reversed-Field Pinch (RFP) will be described. RFP discharges have been sustained for times (27 ms) >> the classical resistive diffusion time, implying the existence of a flux-sustainment mechanism (“dynamo”). This mechanism opens the possibility for a steady-state RFP reactor utilizing a unique form of non-inductive current drive. Te > 500 eV has been obtained for 400 kA aischarges with ∼ 4 × 1019 m−3. Total energy confinement time τE has reached 0.7 ms with a Lawson parameter of 5 × 1016 m−3 s for discharges with = 8×1019 m−3 and Te = 330 eV at a plasma current of 330 kA and 0.33 T total confining field at the wall. Reactor-like βθ ∼ 10–20% is routinely obtained for plasma currents from 60–400 kA (β ∼ βθ/2). Scaling of τE ∼ I(2.2±0.4) is found, more than adequate for a compact RFP reactor.
