Post-irradiation-examination of irradiated fuel outside the hot cell

Conference · Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2007

OSTI ID:918192

Janney, Dawn E; Robinson, Adam B; O'Holleran, Thomas P; Lind, R Paul; Babcock, Marc; Brower, Laurence C; Jacobs, Julie; Hoggan, Pamela K

Because of their high radioactivity, irradiated fuels are commonly examined in a hot cell. However, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has recently investigated irradiated U-Mo-Al metallic fuel from the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) project using a conventional unshielded scanning electron microscope outside a hot cell. This examination was possible because of a two-step sample-preparation approach in which a small volume of fuel was isolated in a hot cell and shielding was introduced during later stages of sample preparation. The resulting sample contained numerous sample-preparation artifacts but allowed analysis of microstructures from selected areas.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE - NNSA
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC07-99ID-13727
• OSTI ID: 918192
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-07-12919; TRN: US0805265
• Resource Relation: Conference: European Working Group, Hot Laboratories and Remote Handling,Bucharest, Romania,09/20/2007,09/21/2007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
46 - INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
ELECTRON MICROSCOPES
HOT CELLS
IDAHO
RADIOACTIVITY
REMOTE HANDLING
RESEARCH AND TEST REACTORS
SAMPLE PREPARATION
SHIELDING
SPENT FUELS
irradiated fuel
RERTR
sample preparation
scanning electron microscopy (SEM)