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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
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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.
M. Harb, L. El-Guebaly, A. Davis, P. Wilson, E. Marriott, J. Benzaquen, FESS-FNSF Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 3 | October 2017 | Pages 510-515
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1333846
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Two issues related to neutronics analysis of fusion systems were addressed for the purpose of physical design iterations as well as plant operation: tritium self-sufficiency and shielding of the inboard magnet. State-of-the-art modeling/analysis tools facilitated a full 3-D neutronics analysis of the latest FESS-FNSF design. The first stage of the analysis involved the selection of materials for the first wall and blanket along with shielding materials to protect the magnet based on extensive 1-D analyses. The second stage is a stepwise workflow to estimate the overall tritium breeding ratio with high fidelity. It involved a bottom-up approach by coupling the CAD model with the 3-D MCNP code using DAGMC and adding the relevant design details in steps to assess the effect of such details on the tritium breeding ratio. The final stage involved calculations of the values of damage parameters at specific components: the first wall, the vacuum vessel, and magnet.
