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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.
Hugo E. Ferrari, Ricardo Farengo
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 4 | November 2009 | Pages 1512-1520
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A9254
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We study the interaction of fusion-born particles and neutral beams (NBs) with field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas. The power deposited and the current generated are calculated for FRC reactors operating with the D-T and D-3He fusion reactions. In the beam studies we specify the beam energy and current, the injection point, and the impact parameter and include an ionization package to determine the position and velocity of the beam particles when they become ionized. In the case of fusion-born particles, we consider a large number of isotropic particle sources distributed inside the FRC. The plasma equilibria are obtained by solving the Grad-Shafranov equation with a pressure that contains linear and quadratic terms in the flux function. A Monte Carlo code that includes particle drag and diffusion is then employed to follow the exact trajectories of the fusion or beam particles and calculate the resulting current and deposited power. The effect of a rotating magnetic field and a toroidal field on the current and deposited power is also studied. In D-T reactors the current generated by the alpha particles is small, but the deposited power fraction is large, and NBs can produce significant currents with reasonable input powers. In D-3He reactors the fusion protons can produce large currents, but the deposited power fraction and the NB current drive efficiencies are low. A small toroidal field, compatible with high FRCs, reduces the deposited power fraction and the current.
