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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.
R. E. Tokheim, L. Seaman, T. Cooper, B. Lew, D. R. Curran, J. Sanchez, A. Anderson, M. Tobin
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 745-751
Plasma-Facing Components: Analysis and Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963024
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The purpose of this work is to computationally assess the threat from shrapnel generation on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) first wall, final optics, and ultimately other target chamber components. Shrapnel is defined as material that is in a solid, liquid, or clustered-vapor phase with sufficient velocity to become a threat to exposed surfaces as a consequence of its impact. Typical NIF experiments will be of two types, low neutron yield shots in which the capsule is not cryogenically cooled, and high yield shots for which cryogenic cooling of the capsule is required. For non-cryogenic shots, shrapnel would be produced by spalling, melting, and vaporizing of “shine shields” by absorption and shock wave loading following 1-ω and 2-ω laser radiation. For cryogenic shots, shrapnel would be generated through shock wave splitting, spalling, and droplet formation of the cryogenic tubes following neutron energy deposition. Motion of the shrapnel is determined not only by particle velocities resulting from the neutron deposition, but also by both x-ray and ionic debris loading arising from explosion of the hohlraum. Material responses of different target area components are computed from one-dimensional and two-dimensional stress wave propagation codes. Well developed rate-dependent spall computational models are used for stainless steel spall and splitting. Severe cell distortion is accounted for in shine-shield and hohlraum-loading computations. Resulting distributions of shrapnel particles are traced to the first wall and optics and damage is estimated for candidate materials. First wall and optical material damage from shrapnel includes crater formation and associated extended cracking.