Status Report on Development of a Cask to Enable Pulsed Neutron Characterization of Irradiated Fuel
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
We present the design of a shielding cask that allows pulsed neutron characterization of irradiated fuel rodlets prior to their destructive examination in hot cells. The goal is to provide complementary and informative measurements that will inform subsequent hot cell PIE examinations by identifying typical and atypical regions with respect to microstructure, tomographic data, or isotope densities. Time-of-flight neutron diffraction has the potential to offer efficient, non-destructive and non-contact microstructural characterization of irradiated fuel pins with spatial resolution of 1 mm3 to 1 cm3 while for energy-resolved neutron imaging (and by extension tomography) a resolution of 100 μm was demonstrated. The potential results include crystallinity vs. amorphous volumes and microstructural information such as phase compositions and textures from the diffraction data as well as distances (e.g. pellet to cladding), cracks, and isotopic distributions of minor actinides, fission products as well as fission gas partial pressures e.g. in the plenum from energy resolved neutron imaging. The capability will identify regions of atypical behavior and provide cost effective bulk characterization of entire samples prior to destructive evaluation in hot cells. This effort is a collaboration between LANL, INL, ORNL, and UC Berkeley. A key facet of the initiative is the ability to cost effectively ship irradiated fuels from INL to the pulsed spallation neutron source at LANSCE. The irradiated fuel would be loaded in the custom designed cask (designated RaMHaM) at INL hot cells which then could be shipped in a BRR Type B shipment container between INL and LANL. No hot cell is required after the loading of the sample at INL in the pathway laid out in this report, greatly simplifying handling at LANL.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE). Fuel Cycle Technologies (NE-5)
- DOE Contract Number:
- 89233218CNA000001
- OSTI ID:
- 1663154
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR--20-27232; M4FT-20LA020201022
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Progress Report on Mockup Irradiation Capsule Fuel Measurements at LANSCE
First Examination of Irradiated Fuel with Pulsed Neutrons at LANSCE (Preliminary Results)