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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.
Charles W. Forsberg, David M. Carpenter, Dennis G. Whyte, Raluca Scarlat, Liu Wei
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 71 | Number 4 | May 2017 | Pages 584-589
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1289450
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Three advanced power systems use liquid salt coolants that generate tritium and thus face common challenges to prevent release of the tritium to the environment. The Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (FHR) uses the same graphite-matrix coated-particle fuel as High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) and clean fluoride salt coolants. Molten salt reactors (MSRs) dissolve the fuel in a fluoride or chloride salt and release the fission product tritium to the salt. High-magnetic-field fusion machines may use liquid salt cooling and blankets because of the very high power densities of this new class of fusion machine. The three technologies can be coupled to a Nuclear Air-Brayton Combined Cycle (NACC) enabling variable electricity with base-load reactor operation.
Converging requirements for tritium control in 700°C liquid salts are leading to cooperative programs across technologies; tritium models that combined generation, chemistry, metal corrosion and transport; and new tritium control technologies using advanced carbon forms, metals produced by additive manufacturing and other technologies.
