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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.
W. Hui, B. Bamieh & G. H. Miley
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 26 | Number 3 | November 1994 | Pages 1151-1157
Fusion Power Reactor, Economic, and Alternate Concept | Proceedings of the Eleventh Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy New Orleans, Louisiana June 19-23, 1994 | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A40309
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An integrated 0-dimensional plasma-control code, ASH, has been developed and employed to study the possibility of controlling the burn condition of an ITER-type fusion reactor by modulating the refueling rate. A key feature of this study is the incorporation of robust control theory to allow for modeling uncertainties. A constant gain proportional feedback controller is synthesized; the values of feedback gains are obtained by the algorithm. With this control method, modulation of the refueling rate alone can potentially stabilize fusion burn with the alpha confinement time , or controller delay τdelay = 1.5τE, or D-T recycling ratio 98%. These limitations are fairly restrictive, indicating that added control, e.g., via input power modulation, may be necessary.