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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.
Toshiharu Sakurai, Toshiaki Yoneoka, Satoru Tanaka, Akihiro Suzuki, Takeo Muroga
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | March 2001 | Pages 649-653
Fusion Materials | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963312
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A purpose of the present study is to investigate the compatibility of SiC/SiC composite material and AlN ceramics with liquid metals. Corrosion behavior of materials could be affected by non-metallic impurities like nitrogen in liquid lithium. Another purpose of the present study is to control the concentration of nitrogen impurity by using getter materials and to study the effect of getter materials on compatibility with AlN. At 700K, all of the SiC/SiC specimens, except high purity specimen, were entirely broken down in liquid lithium. Even in this high purity specimen, many cracks were observed on the surface. On the other hand, in the case of SiC/SiC with Li17Pb83 at 773K, all of the specimens were not corroded. At 673K, impurity levels in AlN were changed in the case immersed in liquid lithium with getter materials. At 823K, impurities in AlN were attacked by lithium and the surface of it was locally peeled off. It was also observed that the getter material captured nitrogen.
