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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.
Hitoshi Nakano, Tsuyoshi Fukuda
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 35 | Number 2 | March 1999 | Pages 189-193
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST99-A11963920
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Thin-walled plastic hollow shells were fabricated using a conventional emulsion technique. Polystyrene and a copolymer of acrylonitrile and styrene were investigated. Wall thickness of the resultant shells was found to be reduced at low-concentration of plastic and high temperature for the underwater drying process. Preliminary results indicate that shells of approximately 1 mm diameter having a wall thickness of less than 3 μm were easily produced.