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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. Abdrashitov et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 1 | January 2005 | Pages 27-34
Technical Paper | Open Magnetic Systems for Plasma Confinement | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A604
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the recent experiments, on-axis transverse beta exceeding 0.4 in the fast ion turning points near the end mirrors has been achieved in the GDT experiment with 4 MW injection of 15-17 keV deuterium neutral beams at the center of the device. Neither enhanced transverse losses of the plasma nor anomalies in the fast ion scattering and slowing down were observed. The measured beta value is close to that needed in the versions of the GDT-based 14 MeV neutron source. At the same time, the electron temperature for given injection power and pulse duration is limited to 100-130eV. Its further increase is planned after upgrade of the injection system and increase of the magnetic field at the center of device up to 0.3T. Upgrade of the injection system assumes that neutral beam power incident on to the plasma will be increased up to 9-10 MW and pulse duration is extended from 1.2 to 5 ms. According to the results of numerical simulations, for the extended pulse duration a plasma steady state will be achieved with electron temperature of 250-320 eV, depending upon the assumptions on the transverse energy loss rate. Future experiments on the GDT-upgrade are discussed in the paper.
