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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.
I.N. Sviatoslavsky, E. A. Mogahed, E. T. Cheng, R. J. Cerbone, Y-K. M. Peng, X. R. Wang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 1061-1065
Nuclear Testing and Design (Poster Session) | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963754
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Mechanical, thermal and neutronics design aspects of the toroidal field coil centerpost (CP) for a spherical torus based volumetric neutron source (ST-VNS) are presented. It is being investigated with support of a DOE-SBIR under the direction of TSI Research Inc. of Solana Beach, CA. The ST-VNS is to provide a test bed for developing nuclear technologies, as well as qualifying blanket designs for future fusion reactors. The device is scoped to be capable of staged operation with a neutron wall loading range of 0.5–4.0 MW/m2 as the physics and engineering design assumptions are raised from modest to aggressive levels. Margins in the design are ensured, since operation at 2 MW/m2 neutron wall loading will satisfy the mission of the VNS. The device has a naturally diverted plasma with a major radius of 1.1m, a minor radius of 0.78 m for an aspect ratio of 1.4, an elongation of 3, a triangularity of 0.6 and can be driven with neutral beams (NB) or radio frequency (RF). It utilizes a single turn; unshielded normal conducting CP made of dispersion strengthened (DS) Cu that is 15.5 m long and has a diameter of 0.55 m at the midplane. Resistive heating at the start of operation is 153 MW and increases to 178 MW after three full power years. The effect of transmutation in the Cu causes an increase in the resistivity, producing a shift in the CP current towards the center. The results of this shift on power distribution are reported.