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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. Loarer, Tore Supra Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 3 | October 2009 | Pages 1300-1317
Technical Papers | Tore Supra Special Issue | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A9179
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tore Supra is a superconducting limiter tokamak designed for long and high-power discharges. In its initial phase, the plasma density control was handled by a set of seven modular limiters (total area [approximately]1.5 m2) equipped with pumps. An inner wall ([approximately]10 m2), covered with actively cooled carbon tiles, was used to handle high-power discharges. An ergodic divertor (ED), composed of six modules, was installed on the low-field side to create a stochastic edge layer for enhancing the edge radiation; all the modules were equipped with neutralizer plates and a pumping system. The performances, in terms of pumping capabilities and density control, are reported for the modular pump limiters and the ED modules, equipped with neutralizer plates for particle collection. Throat and vented geometries, respectively collecting ions and neutrals, were tested for the modular limiters and the ED. After 12 years of operation, a major upgrade (Composants Internes et Limiteur project) resulted in the replacement of all these plasma-facing components by a flat toroidal pump limiter (total area [approximately]7.6 m2) actively cooled and located at the bottom of the machine. Long discharges (6 min) with high energy input (>1.0 GJ) have been performed repetitively, in steady-state conditions.