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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.
S. J. Zenobia, G. L. Kulcinski
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 1 | July 2009 | Pages 352-360
High Average Power Laser and Other IFE R&D | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A8927
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Single- and polycrystalline tungsten samples were implanted with 30 keV3He ions to fluences of 5e16, 4e17 and 5e18 He/cm2 at temperatures ranging from ~850 - 1000 °C. After implantation tungsten's retention characteristics were studied using 3He(d,p)4He nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) and 3He(n,p)T neutron depth profiling (NDP). Morphological analyses included scanning electron microscopy (SEM), focused ion beam (FIB) milling, and X-ray diffraction on the single crystalline W samples (XRD).SEM analysis showed that the threshold forsurface pore formation occurs in both single-crystalline tungsten (SCW) and polycrystalline tungsten (PCW) between ~5e16 - 4e17 He+/cm2. Both surface and sub-surface pore formation is observed to increase with higher implant fluences. Focused ion beam (FIB) milling revealed a sub-surface porous layer in both SCW and PCW, which increased in depth with implanted fluences. NRA measured the retained He fluence in SCW between 1.1e16 - 1.1e17 He/cm2 and in PCW between 1.3e17 - 1.5e17 He/cm2. NDP analysis measured the retained He fluence in SCW between 2.0e16 - 2.7e17 He/cm2 and in PCW between 4.1e16 - 3.2e17 He/cm2. Both of these analysis techniques reveal that the retained helium saturates in both single and polycrystalline W at ~4e17 cm-2. The NDP analysis showed that the peak helium concentration shifted deeper into the specimens as the dose was increased, indicating a decrease in the effective density of the surface layer with an increased dose. Average retained helium concentrations were found to range from 0.7 - 8.6 at% in SCW and from 1.3 - 11.4 at% in PCW.
