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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.
D. Frigione, L. Pieroni, P. Buratti, E. Giovannozzi, M. Romanelli, B. Esposito, M. Leigheb, L. Gabellieri
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 45 | Number 3 | May 2004 | Pages 339-349
Technical Paper | Frascati Tokamak Upgrade (FTU) | doi.org/10.13182/FST04-A518
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
High-density plasmas (no ~ 8 × 1020 m-3) achieving steady improved core-confinement have been obtained in the Frascati Tokamak Upgrade (FTU) up to the maximum nominal toroidal field (8 T) by deep multiple pellet injection. These plasmas exhibit also high purity, efficient electron-ion coupling, and peaked density profiles sustained for several energy confinement times. Neutron yields in excess of 1 × 1013 n/s are measured, consistent with the reduction of the ion transport to neoclassical levels. Improved performance is associated with sawtooth stabilization that occurs when the pellet penetrates close to the q = 1 surface. In this regime, impurity accumulation can be prevented if a slow sawtooth activity is maintained. Experiments aimed at obtaining radiation-improved modes at high field have also been carried out using neon injection. The observed increase of the average density, with respect to the reference discharge, is significantly larger than the contribution of Ne. The neutron yield increases also by a factor of 3 to 6, and the energy confinement time increases by a factor up to 1.4.