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Latest News
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.
Youshan Yang, Lusheng Wang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 1 | January 2024 | Pages 55-67
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2185045
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This work aims to investigate the characteristics of the H atom in the tetrahedral interstitial sites of 8f2, 4c1, 8f1, 4c2, 8e, and 8g1 in the ZrCoH3 cell by first principles calculation based on the density functional theory. The research shows that pressure can change the local property of the electrons and the bonding ability of the H atom and its adjacent metal atoms, resulting in changes in the stable point and the disproportion point of the H atom in ZrCoH3. Further research has found that at P = 0 GPa, the significant Co-H covalent bond makes the H atom prefer to occupy the tetrahedral interstitial sites of 8f1 and 4c2 in the ZrCoH3 cell, while the H atom occupying the tetrahedral interstitial site of 4c1 in the ZrCoH3 cell has a significant Zr-H ionic bond with its adjacent Zr atom, which is the reason for the disproportionation of the ZrCoH3 alloy. When P = 10 GPa, the H atoms become unstable in the 8f1 and 4c2 tetrahedral interstices of the ZrCoH3 crystal cell. The significant Zr-H ionic bond between the H atoms in the 8f1 tetrahedral interstice and their adjacent Zr atoms is the reason for the disproportionation of the ZrCoH3 alloy, and the significant Co-H covalent bond makes the H atoms preferentially occupy the 4c1 and 8g1 tetrahedral interstices.
