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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.
D. D. Ryutov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 1 | January 2005 | Pages 148-154
Technical Paper | Open Magnetic Systems for Plasma Confinement | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A627
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An issue of the axial electron heat loss is of a significant importance for mirror-based fusion devices. This problem has been considered in a number of publications but it is still shrouded in misconceptions. In this paper we revisit it once again. We discuss the following issues: 1) Formation of the electron distribution function in the end tank at large expansion ratios; 2) The secondary emission from the end plates and the ways of suppressing it (if needed); 3) Ionization and charge exchange in the presence of neutrals in the end tanks; 4) Instabilities caused by the peculiar shape of the electron distribution function and their possible impact on the electron heat losses; 5) Electron heat losses in the pulsed mode of operation of mirror devices.
