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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.
R. Krishnamoorthy, S. L. Prathapa Reddy, Ambresh P. Ambalgi, M. Amina Begum
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 5 | July 2021 | Pages 366-372
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1903783
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents the generation of modes of angular momentum of the orbital type using a proposed array antenna fed with Rotman lens of multiple layers of compact size. The gain of orbital angular momentum is enhanced by the proposed microstrip antenna, which is a circular array antenna with nine elements fed with Rotman lens utilizing the patch element of high gain. Antenna gain can be enhanced in an effective manner; the patch element is attached with two slots loaded in a stacked patch. The circular array when employing the feeding network with Rotman lens causes excitation of different input ports, which produces carrying beams of orbital angular momentum with mode numbers m = 0, m = ±1, m = ±2, m = ±3, and m = ±4. A phase shift of 160 deg is achieved on the output ports in the adjacent position for meeting the requirement of the phase of orbital angular momentum modes of m = ±4. The detection angle of the ports of the beam and array is adjusted by modifying the Rotman lens for achieving the uniform distribution of amplitude on the output ports of the antenna. Therefore, effective improvement is observed in the radiation pattern of the orbital angular momentum beams, which obtains equal amplitude in all the output ports. The fabrication of a prototype antenna of C band is done, and measurements are performed. Simulated results match the measured results, indicating that generation of orbital angular momentum is done by the antenna proposed in this paper, which can be used in communication systems based on orbital angular momentum.