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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.
B. P. Chock, D. R. Harding, T. B. Jones
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 2 | March 2018 | Pages 237-247
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1378013
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Surfactant-containing water droplets were produced using a 75-Vrms pondermotive force operating at 10 kHz. Heat from a 30-V direct-current source, applied to a 2 × 0.1-mm region of the fluid, was instrumental in rupturing a low-surface-energy liquid membrane and forming the droplet. The low voltage allows quick and accurate dispensing of droplets without dielectric breakdown. Nanoliter-sized (~7.6-nL) butanol-styrene droplets were formed using 133 Vrms at 900 Hz. Microliter-sized oil droplets (~0.6 to 10.5 μL) were formed using high voltage (460 to 672 Vrms at 100 Hz). Oil-water emulsions were formed and moved horizontally, overcoming frictional and surface tension forces. Large oil droplets were also moved to a wider electrode spacing, where the emulsion can take the spherical shape of a target. This was only achieved by transporting the emulsion down an inclined slope (45 deg) using gravity to augment the electric force. All the steps are in place to form targets from oil-water-oil and water-oil-water emulsions; only the dielectrophoretic centering and polymerization processes, which were demonstrated previously, must be added.