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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.
S. Yang, Y. Gohar
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 1 | July 1985 | Pages 1012-1019
Shielding Neutronic | Proceedings of the Sixth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (San Francisco, California, March 3-7, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A40166
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Design analyses and tradeoff studies for the bulk shield of the Tokamak Fusion Core Experiment (TFCX) were performed. Several shielding options were considered to lower the capital cost of the shielding system. Optimization analyses were carried out to reduce the nuclear responses in the TF coils and the dose equivalent in the reactor hall one day after shutdown. Two TFCX designs with different toroidal field (TF) coil configurations were considered during this work. The materials for the shield were selected based upon trade-off studies and the results from the previous design studies. The main shielding materials are water, concrete, and steel balls (Fe1422 or Nitronic 33). Small amounts of boron carbide and lead are employed to reduce activation, nuclear heating in the TF coils, and dose equivalent after shutdown.