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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. V. Kuteev, P. R. Goncharov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 76 | Number 7 | October 2020 | Pages 836-847
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2020.1817701
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fundamentally new characteristics and parameters can be achieved in systems for energy production and special applications by combining nuclear fusion and fission reactions in a single design. In the first decades of the atomic era, fusion-fission hybrid systems (FFHSs) were developed for military applications. The civilian use of hybrid systems in the energy sector, which was also foreseen by the creators of nuclear explosives, has proved to be much more difficult. This paper discusses the development of FFHSs: the initial stage from 1950 to 2000, the current stage from 2000 to 2020, and the long-term targets for 2020 to 2130.
