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Latest News
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.
Matt K. Michalak, Aaron N. Fancher, Gerald L. Kulcinski, John F. Santarius
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 3 | October 2017 | Pages 449-454
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1330609
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison inertial electrostatic confinement fusion device HOMER was used to perform current scans at low and moderate pressures, 0.3 and 1.0 mTorr of deuterium, in which the cathode voltage, current, and pressure were carefully controlled. The data was taken in short intervals to avoid the degrading effect of chamber heating on the fusion rate. Low pressure operation should harden the deuterium energy spectrum, but the low pressure also reduces target density. The results showed the fusion rates for 0.3 mTorr are about half that at 1 mTorr. Also, the 6 low pressure current scans had confirmed the approximately linear neutron production rates with respect to current. All 6 of the 1 mTorr current scans showed trends of slightly above linear neutron rates. Also, a new IEC steady state D-D neutron production record of 2.5 × 108 n/s was set at 150 kV, 100 mA, and 1.0 mTorr.