Wireless in-core acoustic telemetry and self-powered sensing

Conference · Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016

OSTI ID:22750121

Smith, J. A.; Agarwal, V.; Heidrich, B. J. ^[1]; Garrett, S. L. ^[2]; Heibel, M. D. ^[3]

---

1. Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID 83415 (United States)
2. Penn State University, State College, PA 16801 (United States)
3. Westinghouse Electric Company, Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (United States)

A promising wireless telemetry infrastructure based on acoustic transmission of in-pile measurements (information) is being developed at the Idaho National Laboratory for use in nuclear reactors. In this paper, we will demonstrate an approach to telemetry and sensing that exploits a reactor core's energy-rich environment to generate acoustic telemetry signals from self-powered telemeters that produce sounds. These sounds propagate through the reactor's coolant, whether it is gas, water, or liquid metal, through its mechanical structures (e.g., lattice work, pressure vessel, and piping), and can be detected outside the reactor. A thermo-acoustic (TAC) sensor was designed to be geometrically indistinguishable from the other Training Research Isotopes General Atomics (TRIGA) fuel elements in the Breazeale reactor's core. Heat was produced by fission of two Pathfinder {sup 235}UO{sub 2} fuel pellets contained within a finned heat exchanger. The acoustic signals from the TAC sensor can be picked up by hydro-phones and accelerometers anywhere in the reactor pool and from structures that penetrate the pool. Most of the signals we acquired had sufficient signal-to-noise ratios even with both the {sup 16}N diffusion pump and the pool coolant pump operating. The TAC sensor was tested during eight irradiation runs in the Breazeale Nuclear Reactor over the span of a week. We were able to show that the frequency of the thermo-acoustically generated sound provides an accurate determination of the reactor's coolant temperature. Such a sensor strategy might have provided useful information in a reactor accident like that which destroyed the Fukushima complex in March 2011.

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22750121
• Resource Relation: Conference: Top Fuel 2016: LWR fuels with enhanced safety and performance, Boise, ID (United States), 11-15 Sep 2016; Other Information: Country of input: France; 13 refs.; Related Information: In: Top Fuel 2016 Proceedings| 1670 p.
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
42 ENGINEERING
ACCELEROMETERS
ACOUSTIC MEASUREMENTS
FUEL ELEMENTS
FUEL PELLETS
HEAT EXCHANGERS
IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY
NITROGEN 16
PRESSURE VESSELS
REACTOR CORES
SENSORS
SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO
SOUND WAVES
TELEMETRY
TRIGA TYPE REACTORS
URANIUM 235
URANIUM OXIDES
WAVE PROPAGATION