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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.
V.E. Moiseenko
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 27 | Number 3 | April 1995 | Pages 547-550
New Trends and Advanced Concepts | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A11962960
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
D-T fusion in a DRACON with one hot (D or T) ion component is considered. It is supposed that the power from external source (neutral beam injection or ICRF heating) is deposited to hot ions near the center of DRACON mirror part. Because the energy deposition is anisotropic in the velocity space, the anisotropy of hot ions is substantial both for neutron source and reactor plasmas. This results in the following:–hot ions arc trapped mainly in the DRACON mirror part where good confinement can be expected. Therefore, the main channel of hot component energy loss is Coulomb collisions with the cold background plasma.–the pressure of hot ions substantially drops in the CRELs (stellarator parts of DRACON). The contribution of hot ions to Phirsh-Schluter current falls what facilitate the satisfaction of the beta-limit condition.–fusion output is localized in the DRACON mirror parts where confining magnetic field is not so high and more space for fusion energy utilizing devices is available. Reduced neutron flux in CRELs facilitates the solution of many technical problems there. In addition, localization of neutron flux leads to substantial reduction of external power required for the DRACON fusion neutron source.
hot ions arc trapped mainly in the DRACON mirror part where good confinement can be expected. Therefore, the main channel of hot component energy loss is Coulomb collisions with the cold background plasma.
the pressure of hot ions substantially drops in the CRELs (stellarator parts of DRACON). The contribution of hot ions to Phirsh-Schluter current falls what facilitate the satisfaction of the beta-limit condition.
fusion output is localized in the DRACON mirror parts where confining magnetic field is not so high and more space for fusion energy utilizing devices is available. Reduced neutron flux in CRELs facilitates the solution of many technical problems there. In addition, localization of neutron flux leads to substantial reduction of external power required for the DRACON fusion neutron source.
The scenarios for the DRACON neutron source as well as for the DRACON fusion reactor arc analyzed. The usage of hot ion distribution anisotropy effects, which arc strong for neutron source schemes and not so strong but sufficient for the fusion reactor one, results in that the scenarios have obvious advantages in comparison with analogous ones based on other confinement devices.