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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.
T. Norimatsu et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 1 | July 2009 | Pages 361-368
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-A8928
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Current status of elemental research on a laser fusion reactor with a liquid wall in Japan is summarized. Cascade scheme was found to be useful to obtain a continuous protective liquid LiPb layer. Formation of micro particles in a plume ablated by alpha particle heating is discussed based on experimental results obtained by backside irradiation of a lead membrane. Our numerical simulation results for formation of aerosols matched experimental results obtained with electric discharge through a thin lead membrane. Protection of beam port is described. A magnetic field generated with a pulse current successfully shields the tip of beam port from alpha particles. Tracking of cone target with diverging beam showed 0.2 m resolution at 10m separation.
