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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.
Yuichi Ogawa et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 1 | January 2005 | Pages 63-70
Technical Paper | Open Magnetic Systems for Plasma Confinement | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A609
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Self-organization related with relaxation phenomenon is playing an important role in various aspects of magnetic confined plasmas. Recently a relaxation theory including the plasma flow has been developed by Mahajan-Yoshida, and a new relaxation state has been identified. The two-fluid relaxation condition is given by + (V/VA)2 = const. To study a self-organized structure with strong plasma flow, we have introduced an internal coil device. By inducing a radial electric field with appropriate methods, we could drive a toroidal plasma flow, and confine a high beta plasma in a core region. The internal coil device Mini-RT with a high temperature superconductor(HTS) coil(Rc=0.15m, Ic=50kA) has been constructed. The vacuum chamber is 1 m in diameter and ~0.7 m in height. The magnetic field strength near the internal coil is around 0.1 T, and a radio-frequency wave of 2.45 GHz is applied for the plasma production. We have started ECH plasma experiments with the coil supported mechanically. The electron density, which has a peak near the internal coil, is of order 1016 m-3, reaching the cut-off density of the microwave. While, the electron temperature is of order 10 eV with a broad profile. Estimated energy confinement time is of order 10-(5-6) sec. The levitation experiment of the HTS coil has been carried out. The position of the HTS coil is measured with laser sensors, and is feedback-controlled with the levitation coil current. We have succeeded to levitating the HTS coil during one hour with an accuracy of less than 20 m. A preliminary experiment for the plasma production at the floating condition of the HTS coil has been initiated. It is affirmed that the levitation system works well and plasma with separatrix configuration is produced.