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The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.
A. Ying et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 4 | May 2005 | Pages 1031-1037
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - First Wall, Blanket, and Shield | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A823
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An engineering scaling process is applied to the solid breeder ITER TBM designs in accordance with the testing objectives of validating the design tools and the database, and evaluating blanket performance under prototypical operating conditions. The goal of scaling is to ensure that changes in structural response and performance caused by changes in size and operating conditions do not reduce the usefulness of the tests. Initially, constitutive equations are applied to lay out the basic operating and design parameters that dominate blanket phenomena. The suitability of these similarity criteria for the TBM design is then confirmed by comparing finite element predictions of prototype and scale model responses. The TBM design also takes into account the need to check the codes and data for future design use. Specifically, predictability of tritium production and nuclear heating rates in a complex geometry, tritium release and permeation characteristics under fusion environments belong to this category. We conclude that this engineering scaling design process has maximized the value of ITER testing.