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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. M. Soures, S. J. Loucks, R. L. McCrory, C. P. Verdon, A. Babushkin, R. E. Bahr, T. R. Boehly, R. Boni, D. K. Bradley, D. L. Brown, J. A. Delettrez, R. S. Craxton, W. R. Donaldson, R. Epstein, R. Gram, D. R. Harding, P. A. Jaanimagi, S. D. Jacobs, K. Kearney, R. L. Keck, J. H. Kelly, T. J. Kessler, R. L. Kremens, J. P. Knauer, S. A. Letzring, D. J. Lonobile, L. D. Lund, F. J. Marshall, P. W. McKenty, D. D. Meyerhofer, S. F. B. Morse, A. Okishev, S. Papernov, G. Pien, W. Seka, R. W. Short, M. D. Skeldon, S. Skupsky, A. W. Schmid, D. J. Smith, S. Swales, M. Wittman, B. Yaakobi, M. J. Shoup, III
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 492-496
National Ignition Facility | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11962988
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a 192-beam, 1.8-MJ (ultraviolet) laser facility that is currently planned to start operating in 2002. The NIF mission is to provide data critical to this Nation's science-based stockpile stewardship (SBSS) program and to advance the understanding of inertial confinement fusion and assess its potential as an energy source. The NIF project involves a collaboration among the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Sandia National Laboratory (SNL), and the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics (UR/LLE). In this paper, the role of the University of Rochester in the research, development, and planning required to assure the success of the NIF will be presented. The principal roles of the UR/LLE in the NIF are (1) validation of the direct-drive approach to NIF using the OMEGA 60-beam, 40-kJ UV laser facility; (2) support of indirect-drive physics experiments using OMEGA in collaboration with LLNL and LANL; (3) development of plasma diagnostics for NIF; (4) development of beam-smoothing techniques; and (5) development of thin-film coatings for NIF and cryogenic-fuel-layer targets for eventual application to NIF.
