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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.
M. Gasparotto et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 3 | April 2005 | Pages 339-344
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Experimental Devices and Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A714
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The WENDELSTEIN 7-X stellarator (W7-X) is the next step device in the stellarator line of IPP and is presently under construction at the Greifswald branch institute. The experiment aims at demonstrating the steady state capability of a stellarator machine at reactor relevant parameters. An important feature of W7-X is the high geometrical accuracy of the magnetic configuration which implies tight tolerances in the construction and assembly phases. The magnetic system consists of 50 non planar and 20 planar superconducting coils. Critical components are the coil support elements connecting the coil to the central mechanical structure and the inter-coil elements connecting the coils one to the other. Efficient thermal insulation of the superconducting coils is achieved by high vacuum and multi-layer insulation. The plasma vessel is composed of 10 half-modules welded together during the assembly phase. A 10 MW ECRH system with CW-capability operation at 140 GHz is required to meet the scientific objective of W7-X.The paper will report the recent progress on W7-X with particular emphasis on the components where high technology solutions have been applied.
