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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.
Enrico Magnani, Lionel Cachon, Thomas Ihli, Jeremy West
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 2 | August 2009 | Pages 935-939
Power Plants, Demo, and Next Steps | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A9030
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A part of the recent scoping studies for a European DEMO reactor deals with the design of the in-vessel components and their integration inside the reactor. The main in-vessel components are the Breeding Blankets (Helium Cooled Lithium Lead and Helium Cooled Pebble Bed), the helium supply units called Manifolds (MF) and the Neutron Shields. Alternative concepts for the integration of these components have been developed in parallel by different Europe an associations (FZK, CEA, and EFET). Nevertheless these concepts are all based on the vertical segmentation concept called "Multi Module Segment" (MMS). The big advantage of the MMS concept dwells in the fact that blankets and MF constitute a vertical non-permanent segment to be installed and dismantled by Remote Handling (RH) tools through the upper ports of the reactor. The dimensions, geometry and materials are strictly dependent on the harsh conditions of the in-vessel environment: high temperatures, high neutron fluxes, and high thermo-mechanical loads during normal operations and disruptive events. In addition, suitable systems of attachment able to withstand thermal expansion and the expected loads have been developed to provide reliability and easy in-vessel maintenance. The general aspects of the MMS system and the common RH procedures foreseen are presented and the different specific options for solving attachment and in-vessel assembly issues are discussed.