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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.
Jost-Henrich Feist, W7-X Construction Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 46 | Number 1 | July 2004 | Pages 192-199
Technical Paper | Stellarators | doi.org/10.13182/FST04-A555
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator is the largest fusion experiment presently under construction. The main objective of W7-X is to prove the reactor relevance of a stellarator, based on the HELIAS principle, as an alternative to the tokamak. Details of the optimization criteria and the scientific and technical objectives can be found in several publications. At present, the construction of W7-X is close to the start of the assembly. The first superconducting nonplanar coil is undergoing acceptance testing, the first sector of the plasma vessel has been leak tested, the main parts for the outer vessel have been fabricated, the first ports are close to delivery, and many rigs for the assembly are already installed. The assembly started at the end of 2003 with the attachment of saddle coils for magnetic diagnostics on the plasma vessel and will last until 2009 when the torus will be closed. Start of plasma operation is scheduled for the middle of 2010.
