Fuel in most Generation IV reactor designs typically encompasses billions of the TRISO particles. Present day QA/QC methods, done manually and in many cases destructively, cannot economically test a statistically significant fraction of the large number of the individual fuel particles required. Fully automated inspection technologies are essential to economical TRISO fuel particle production. A combination of in-line nondestructive (NDE) measurements employing electromagnetic induction and digital optical imaging analysis is currently under investigation and preliminary data indicate the potential for meeting the demands of this application. To calibrate high-speed NDE methods, surrogate fuel particle samples are being coated with layers containing a wide array of defect types found to degrade fuel performance and these are being characterized via high-resolution CT and digital radiographic images.
Revised: July 13, 2011 |
Published: June 30, 2004
Citation
Hockey R.L., L.J. Bond, C.R. Batishko, J.N. Gray, J.J. Saurwein, and R.A. Lowden. 2004.Advances in Automated QA/QC for TRISO Fuel Particle Production. In Proceedings of ICAPP '04 June 13-17, 2004, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 410-417. La Grange Park, Illinois:American Nuclear Society.PNNL-SA-40575.