Weld Development for Aluminum Fission Chamber

Technical Report · Tue May 16 00:00:00 EDT 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1357147· OSTI ID:1357147

Cross, Carl Edward ^[1]; Martinez, Jesse Norris ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

The Sigma welding team was approached to help fabricate a small fission chamber (roughly ½ inch dia. x ½ inch tall cylinder). These chambers are used as radiation sensors that contain small traces of radionuclides (Cf 252, U 235, and U 238) that serve to ionize gas atoms in addition to external radiation. When a voltage is applied within the chamber, the resulting ion flow can be calibrated and monitored. Aluminum has the advantage of not forming radioactive compounds when exposed to high external radiation (except from minor Na alloy content). Since aluminum has not been used before in this application, this presented an unexplored challenge.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Office of Defense Nuclear Security (NA-70)
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1357147
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-17-23982
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
aluminum
weld
development