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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. McEachern, C. Alford
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 35 | Number 2 | March 1999 | Pages 115-118
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST99-A11963912
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We are studying the feasibility of using boron doping to refine the grain structure of sputter-deposited Be for NIF ignition capsule ablators. The goal is to improve the surface finish and homogeneity of these coatings. Films deposited on flat silicon substrates display a pronounced change in structure at a concentration of ∼11 at.% B. At lower levels of B, grain sizes of about 200 nm are observed. AFM images show the roughness of these films to be about 20 nm rms. At higher levels of B, the grains size drops to below 50 nm and the roughness decreases to less than 2.5 nm rms. Films deposited on capsules do not show the same behavior. In particular, at 15 at.% B, the capsule coatings have nodular structure with an rms roughness of greater than 50 nm. When viewed in cross section, however, no structure is seen with either the flat films or the capsule coatings. We believe that differences in substrate temperature may be largely responsible for the observed behavior.