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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.
Takuya Nagasaka, Ryuta Kasada, Akihiko Kimura, Yoshio Ueda, Takeo Muroga
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 2 | August 2009 | Pages 1053-1057
Fusion Materials | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST56-1053
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tungsten (W) coating on various low activation materials, such as ferritic steel (F82H), oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) steel, and vanadium alloy NIFS-HEAT-2 (NH2) was successfully demonstrated by the vacuum plasma spray (VPS) process. Void and crack-type defects were observed in VPS-W. The mass density of VPS-W at room temperature (RT) was ∼90 % of the bulk W (sintered W). The thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity of VPS-W from RT to 800 °C were 30∼50 % of the bulk W, while the linear expansion coefficient and specific heat of VPS-W were similar to the bulk W. The thermal conductivity of VPS-W was significantly lower than the bulk W, but was still larger than the NH2 substrate. There was no significant thermal contact resistance at the interface between W coating and NH2 substrate. Thus, the heat transfer properties of NH2 will not be degraded by the W coating with the VPS process.
