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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.
Robert P. Keatch, Brian Lawrenson, F. Barrie Lewis, Tony C. Tyrrell
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 35 | Number 2 | March 1999 | Pages 101-105
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST99-A11963910
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The current techniques for fabricating planar laser targets and their components depend heavily on very accurate computer-controlled lathes, diamond turning and milling processes. The development of these processes has formed a science in themself, with novel techniques being developed continuously to keep up with the experimentalist's requirements. Unfortunately, with these techniques, the element of mass-production is lost because each component is made individually. Hence, processes which produce multiple components simultaneously become attractive, resulting in a reduction in both cost and time. Within the microelectronics industry, mass-production is essential and the processes adopted to achieve this have been developed and optimised for microfabrication.