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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.
M.E. Sawan, R.T. Santoro
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 397-403
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963646
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Three-dimensional neutronics calculations have been performed for the ITER divertor cassette design options to determine the nuclear parameters in the cassettes and assess the impact of streaming on vacuum vessel and toroidal field (TF) coil damage. The local nuclear parameters in the components of the reference cassette design are similar or lower than those in the cassette design option with wings. The total nuclear heating in the 60 divertor cassettes is 102 MW for both designs. Helium production levels in the vacuum vessel in the divertor region allow for rewelding. The TF coils are well protected from radiation streaming into the divertor ports.