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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.
Ronald L. Miller
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 2 | August 2009 | Pages 940-944
Power Plants, Demo, and Next Steps | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A9031
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The characterization of the projected power-plant embodiment of the Reversed-Field Pinch (RFP) since the multi-institutional TITAN Study (c1990) is modified by new information and modern approaches used in recent conceptual design studies of various fusion embodiments in the areas of plasma physics/engineering, technology, safety and environmental impact, and costing. The basic features of a D-T burning, toroidal magnetic-confinement RFP system in the 1-GWe class remain, with modifications deriving from experimentally improved energy confinement scaling, re-examination of current-drive options required for steady operation, and other operational features, including the emphasis placed on high power density as a route to compactness and direct cost reduction. The relative competitiveness depends, as always, on plasma physics performance (e.g., beta, energy confinement time, fusion power density, and operational scenario) required technologies (magnetic coils, plasma-facing components, blanket, and power cycle), recirculating power fraction, plant availability (i.e., scheduled and forced outages), radioactive waste disposal, etc. The key aspects of a DEMO/first-commercial RFP fusion power core are examined in the systems context of competitiveness and public acceptance.