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Latest News
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.
L. Liu, F. K. Liu, H. Jia, W. H. Zhu, L. M. Zhao, X. J. Wang, J. F. Shan, B. J. Ding, M. H. Li, Y. Yang, J. Q. Feng, Z. G. Wu, Y. Li, M. Cheng, L. Xu, J. Wang, T. A. Zhou, J. G. Li
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 1 | January 2019 | Pages 49-58
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2018.1516416
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new 4.6-GHz lower hybrid (LH) current drive (CD) (LHCD) launcher has been successfully developed in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) to achieve long-pulse high-performance plasma. It is capable of coupling up to 6 MW of LH power into the plasma with a parallel index N// from 1.79 to 2.23. Before manufacturing the launcher, key component mock-ups were fabricated and tested to validate the radio-frequency (RF) design and the process feasibility. Test results show good agreement with the design value. So far, up to 3.5 MW of net LHCD power was injected into the plasma, and long-pulse operation capability has been demonstrated: 1.26 MW and 100.4 s, suggesting that the new launcher can effectively couple the microwave energy into plasma, to drive current and extend the high-performance plasma. In this paper, some of the RF design, construction, testing, and recent experimental results of the new launcher are presented.
