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Latest News
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.
G. H. Neilson et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 1 | July 2009 | Pages 485-492
Experimental Facilities and Nonelectric Applications | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A8950
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) was designed to test a compact, quasi-axisymmetric stellarator configuration. Flexibility and accurate realization of its complex 3D geometry were key requirements affecting the design and construction. While the project was terminated before completing construc-tion, there were significant engineering accomplishments in design, fabrication, and assembly. The design of the stellarator core device was completed. All of the modular coils, toroidal field coils, and vacuum vessel sectors were fabricated. Critical assembly steps were demonstrated. Engineering advances were made in the application of CAD modeling, structural analysis, and accurate fabrication of complex-shaped components and sub-assemblies. The engineering accomplishments of the project are summarized.