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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.
A. Nobile, M. M. Balkey, J. J. Bartos, S. H. Batha, R. D. Day, J. E. Elliott, N. E. Elliott, V. M. Gomez, D. J. Hatch, N. E. Lanier, J. R. Fincke, R. Manzanares, T. H. Pierce, D. L. Sandoval, D. W. Schmidt, W. P. Steckle
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 45 | Number 2 | March 2004 | Pages 95-106
Technical Paper | Target Fabrication | doi.org/10.13182/FST04-A434
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experimental campaigns are being conducted at the 60 beam OMEGA laser at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics to acquire data to validate hydrodynamic models in the high energy-density regime. This paper describes targets that have been developed and constructed for these experimental campaigns. Targets are 860 m inner diameter by 2.2 mm length cylinders with 70 m thick polymer ablator. On the ablator inner surface and located halfway along the axis of the cylinder is a 500 m wide Al marker band. Band thicknesses in the range 8-16 microns are used. CH foam with densities in the range 30-90 mg/cc fills the inside of the cylinder. While these targets have been fabricated for years, several new improvements and features have recently been developed. Improvements include the use of epoxy instead of polystyrene for the ablator, and the use of electrodeposited Al for the marker band. A critical feature of the target is the surface feature that is placed on the marker band. Experiments are aimed at understanding the hydrodynamic behavior of imploding cylinders as a function of this surface feature. Recent development work has focused on production of engineered surface features on the target marker band. Using a fast tool servo on a diamond turning lathe, a wide range of specified surface features have been produced. This paper will address improvements to the cylinder targets as well as current development efforts.