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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.
Jürgen Baldzuhn, Larry Robert Baylor, James F. Lyon, W7-AS Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 46 | Number 2 | September 2004 | Pages 348-354
Technical Papers | Stellarators | doi.org/10.13182/FST04-A574
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Deep particle fueling into a fusion-relevant plasma can be performed by the injection of cryogenic hydrogen or deuterium pellets. However, the penetration depth and fueling efficiency can be greatly limited when enhanced pellet ablation by fast particles occurs. Only a limited database exists for the penetration depth of ice pellets into stellarators. The penetration depth is measured during pellet injection into purely electron cyclotron resonance heated plasmas on the Wendelstein 7-AS (W7-AS) stellarator. These data are compared with the International Pellet Ablation Database (IPADBASE). Good agreement is found, if the neutral gas shielding model is applied for the scaling law of the penetration depth. The experimental data from W7-AS are used as a basis for planning a new pellet injection system for the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, which is now under construction.
