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This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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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.
A. H. Seltzman, S. J. Wukitch
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 7 | November 2021 | Pages 641-646
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1913030
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), also known as selective laser melting, of Glenn Research Copper 84 (GRCop-84), a Cr2Nb (8 at. % Cr, 4 at. % Nb) precipitation-hardened alloy, produces a fully dense, high-conductivity alloy with tensile strength (470-MPa yield and 710-MPa ultimate tensile strength) superior to other competing copper alloys. Agglomeration and coarsening of precipitates in gas atomized GRCop-84 powder occurred above a threshold of 17 μm in diameter. Area of precipitates within cross sections is consistent among powder particles of different diameters indicating a consistent atomization process. Precipitates within gas atomized powder were shown to either melt and subsequently re-precipitate as the melt pool rapidly cools or break apart during LPBF resulting in precipitates smaller than in the initial powder. Precipitate size in powder therefore does not affect precipitate size, and thus tensile strength, in LPBF GRCop-84.
