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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.
Akiyosi Itakura, Naoki Goto, Masayuki Katoh, Yuichiro Kogi, Yoriko Shima, Hitoshi Hojo, Kiyoshi Yatsu, Shigeyuki Kubota, Atsushi Mase, Tsuyoshi Onuma
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 1 | January 2001 | Pages 265-268
Poster Presentations | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963457
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Two types of microwave reflectometries are installed in the GAMMA 10 device for electron density profile and fluctuation measurement. Microwave is injected into the plasma in the O-inode or in the X-mode and is reflected at the cutoff layer where the electron plasma frequency corresponding to the electron density is equal to the frequency of incident wave.
An ultra short pulse method uses pulse train having duration of 65 ps and repetition rale of 250 kHz generated by an impulse generator. This signal has a broad frequency spectrum in microwave region. So simple transmitting system is realized. Reflected wave is divided into five frequency channels. Their center frequencies are 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 GHz. Time of flight of each frequency component is measured using a time to amplitude converter. Location of reflected point is calculated from the time of flight. An electron density profile is reconstructed with one-shot data.
Fast frequency-modulation method is also used. The microwave source is swept from 11.5 GHz to 17.5 GHz: The signal is injected in the X-mode. Phase difference between reference wave and reflected wave is observed. Density profile is reconstructed from the phase difference data. There is low frequency fluctuation in the plasma. When sweep time is faster than 20 μ s, reliable data are obtained. This system has a rather simple receiving system.
Though reflected wave has an information of fluctuation, several methods of frequency analysis are tried and distribution of fluctuation is observed simultaneously.
Magnetic fluctuation is also observed by cross-polarization scattering method.