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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.
J. R. Nicholas, P. T. Ireland, D. Hancock, D. Robertson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 4 | November 2017 | Pages 566-573
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1350483
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The necessity to handle heat loads in the MW/m2 range has become increasingly prevalent in a number of industries. Termed high-heat flux cooling, some of the most challenging conditions in this field occur at the first wall and divertor regions of a fusion tokamak. Steady-state heat fluxes here may reach values in excess of 10 MW/m2 in some areas for a first stage DEMO. The situation is exasperated further by the environment within the machine, which severely alters material properties with time. Even coolant choice itself can have an impact beyond thermal considerations through tritium inventory and neutron activation. Successfully addressing these issues is of critical importance to the development of commercial fusion power. A number of heat sink modules utilising jet impingement in a flat plate geometry were manufactured using diffusion bonding. Each sample produced was subject to leak and hydrostatic pressure measurements, together with further non-destructive analyses. Thermo-fluid measurements were performed on the components in a purpose built facility employing water as the coolant at pressures of up to 200 bar. To replicate the thermal boundary conditions a resistive thin-film heater technique was utilised. This allowed heat fluxes in the MW/m2 range to be applied to the modules. The results indicate that the concept may be a viable alternative heat sink candidate for first wall or divertor applications in a DEMO, but that further research is required to optimise certain aspects of the design.