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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.
J. Phillip Sharpe, Philippe Chappuis, David A. Petti
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | March 2001 | Pages 1061-1065
Safety and Environment | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963384
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tokamak dust, the particulate matter generated during operation of a tokamak fusion device, was collected from Tore Supra in December 1999, during the initial phase of the scheduled shutdown for installation of advanced plasma facing components. Surface mass densities of material collected from locations with measured surface area are 1100 mg/m2 at the vessel bottom and 15 mg/m2 on average for all other locations. The specific surface area of dust collected from several locations is nearly uniform with an average value of 1.32 g/m2. Geometric mean diameters of samples from different locations have an average value of 3.0 μm, although geometric standard deviations vary from 1.93 to 4.03. The dust is composed of various quantities of carbon, iron, nickel, silicon, and chromium, among other trace elements.
