Development of Electrical Capacitance Sensors for Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) Testing at the Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) Facility
A variety of instruments are being developed and qualified to support the Accident Tolerant Fuels (ATF) program and future transient irradiations at the Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) facility at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The University of New Mexico (UNM) is working with INL to develop capacitance-based void sensors for determining the timing of critical boiling phenomena in static capsule fuel testing and the volume-averaged void fraction in flow-boiling in-pile water loop fuel testing. The static capsule sensor developed at INL is a plate-type configuration, while UNM is utilizing a ring-type capacitance sensor. Each sensor design has been theoretically and experimentally investigated at INL and UNM. Experiments are being performed at INL in an autoclave to investigate the performance of these sensors under representative Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) conditions in a static capsule. Experiments have been performed at UNM using air-water two-phase flow to determine the sensitivity and time response of the capacitance sensor under a flow boiling configuration. Initial measurements from the capacitance sensor have demonstrated the validity of the concept to enable real-time measurement of void fraction. The next steps include designing the cabling interface with the flow loop at UNM for Reactivity Initiated Accident (RIA) ATF testing at TREAT and further characterization of the measurement response for each sensor under varying conditions by experiments and modeling.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1367844
- Report Number(s):
- INL/CON-16-39574
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Test, Research, and Training Reactors (TRTR), Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, August 21–25, 2016
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis of Reactivity Insertion Accidents using BISON Fuel Performance Code
Thermal-hydraulic and Fuel Performance Scoping Studies of a Flowing Water Capsule in TREAT