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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.
Lucas M. Rolison, Michael L. Fensin, Y. C. Francis Thio, Scott C. Hsu, Edward J. Cruz
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 6 | August 2019 | Pages 438-451
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1613140
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We present neutronics calculations for a hypothetical fusion reactor based on the repetitively pulsed concept of plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion (PJMIF). A PJMIF reactor is envisioned to have a replaceable, 3-m-radius spherical metal first wall exposed to 14.1-MeV neutrons; a fast-flowing FLiBe liquid blanket (with thickness 0.75 m) behind the first wall serving as the primary coolant and tritium-breeding medium; and finally an outer structural spherical wall shielded by the blanket. Cylindrical penetrations through both walls and the flowing blanket allow for hundreds of plasma gun drivers to inject hypersonic plasma jets that form both the deuterium-tritium plasma target and high-Z spherically imploding plasma liner to compress the target. This research is the first to conduct Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP6.2) and CINDER2008 neutronics calculations relevant to the PJMIF reactor configuration, with the primary objectives of determining (1) the neutron flux as a function of blanket thickness in the blanket and key reactor components and (2) the tritium production rate in the liquid blanket. These results will be used to estimate other quantities of interest, such as first-wall and gun-electrode lifetimes based on displacements per atom (dpa) accumulation, optimum blanket thickness, activation level of the outer wall and xenon liner, and achievable tritium-breeding ratios. Energy-dependent flux tallies were used to calculate neutron flux inside the FLiBe blanket and outer wall, as well as the cylindrical ports where plasma guns are located. Tally multipliers of the flux in MCNP6.2 estimated tritium breeding ratio, dpa, and nuclear heating, while the depletion code CINDER2008 was used to compare tritium breeding ratios with MCNP6.2 and calculate activation of the outer wall and xenon liner. These calculations provide a baseline for blanket requirements necessary for power production in a PJMIF reactor.