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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.
M. C. Huang, C. D. Hu, C. C. Jiang, Y. Z. Zhao, Y. H. Xie, J. L. Wei, S. Y. Chen, Q. L. Cui, J. J. Pan, Y. L. Xie
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 4 | May 2019 | Pages 330-337
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2018.1557985
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Negative ion beam source test equipment, currently under construction at Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is a prototype of a radio-frequency (RF) ion source for neutral beam injection. An extraction grid power supply (EGPS) for the RF ion source is utilized to extract negative ions. To acquire the output of the EGPS and assure its safe operation, an interlock protection system has been designed. The system meets the requirements of anti-interference signal transmission and management of fast protection in order to minimize adverse consequences. The system takes care of breakdowns occurring during normal operation. All the required functions are implemented by hard-wired circuits, so the response time of fault protection can be less than . This technical note describes the rationale of the isolated transmission and protection functions and presents the implementation of functions in the detailed design. System performance during the experimental tests is described, with emphasis on demonstration of the protection.
