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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.
I. Kotelnikov, M. Romé
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 55 | Number 2 | February 2009 | Pages 140-143
Technical Paper | Seventh International Conference on Open Magnetic Systems for Plasma Confinement | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A7000
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Relativistic effects on the radial equilibrium of non-neutral plasmas confined in cylindrical traps are analyzed for rigid and sheared modes of plasma rotation, both with and without the presence of a coaxial inner charged conductor. The changes with respect to the non-relativistic results are especially pronounced for the fast rotational equilibrium solutions. In particular, relativistic effects can limit the plasma outer radius. Analytical estimates of this maximum radius are found both for a rigid plasma rotation and for the case of a uniform plasma density. It is also observed that the Brillouin density limit is modified when the shielding of the external magnetic field by the current associated with the plasma rotation becomes significant.
