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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.
Yuming Gu, Jun Li, Jianglong Wei, Yahong Xie, Lizhen Liang, Chundong Hu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 2 | August 2017 | Pages 148-156
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1319718
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A prototype negative ion source is in development toward the giant negative ion source for the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor neutral beam injection system at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The multiaperture and multichannel grids are the most challengeable during the construction of the prototype negative ion source. The research and development activities for the grid manufacturing method were carried out and divided into detailed design, implementation, and testing phases. Based on a special manufacturing process involving the vacuum brazing technique, some prototype grids were produced. Two prototypes have similar structures to the extraction grid of the prototype negative ion source except for the reduced number of cooling channels. A testing campaign (including dimension inspection, leak tests, thermal imaging tests, and magnetic tests) was carried out. The results demonstrate that the manufacturing process and construction technology can meet the requirements of the extraction grid and can promote the construction of other grids or components having a similar structure.