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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.
Adrian Serban, Sing Lee
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 35 | Number 1 | January 1999 | Pages 54-61
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST99-A77
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To study the effect of higher axial sheath velocities on neutron production, the geometry of the inner electrode (anode) of a 3-kJ Mather-type plasma focus device was modified. Double-stage stepped-anode configurations were tested with a speed-enhanced region long enough for a significant increase in speed but not long enough to allow the development of force-field flow-field separation at the end of the axial phase. Peak axial speeds up to 15 cm/s were achieved without modifying the deuterium filling pressure and charging voltage. The neutron and soft X-ray productions were found to be dependent on sheath velocity. A new scaling law for the nonbeam component of the neutron yield was proposed.
