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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.
E. Loomis, S. R. Greenfield, S. N. Luo, R. Johnson, T. Shimada, J. Cobble, A. Seifter, D. S. Montgomery
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 55 | Number 2 | February 2009 | Pages 152-162
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A4068
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Single crystals of beryllium were illuminated with nanosecond X-ray pulses generated from laser irradiated (~1.5 × 1014 W/cm2) gold targets. The characteristic gold M-band centered at 2.5 keV was measured by time-integrated transmission grating spectroscopy and a time-resolved (spectrally integrated) X-ray photodiode through beryllium targets of various thickness. Approximately decaying exponential temperature profiles were predicted to be induced in 100- and 160-m-thick single crystal targets producing nearly instant surface motion as measured by free surface velocity interferometry. This temperature profile gave rise to free surface (opposite to drive laser surface) velocity histories in a c-axis single crystal and a (10[overbar]10) single crystal in which large initial acceleration gave way to lower (ramped) acceleration due to the internal temperature gradient. A smooth rise to the peak velocity was then followed by a sharp release originating from the free surface nearest to the laser drive. Differences between the velocities in each of these regions were found between the two single crystals investigated, which were due to the thermal expansion properties as a function of direction (including plasticity). These results can be used to predict the behavior of preheated polycrystalline targets relevant to instability seeding in inertial confinement fusion ablators.
