Expansion of the Fuel Motion Monitoring System

Technical Report · Mon Sep 30 00:00:00 EDT 2024

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/3018693· OSTI ID:3018693

Chichester, David L. ^[1]; Burggraf, Jeffrey ^[1]; Daw, Melissa Jean ^[1]; Hix, Jay D. ^[1]; Holschuh, Tommy ^[1]; Johnson, James T. ^[1]; Ocampo Giraldo, Luis A. ^[1]; Thompson, Scott J. ^[1]; Galaviz, Alexis Vega ^[1]

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1. Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) Fuel Motion Monitoring System (FMMS) is a diagnostic tool used to visualize the movement and location of fuel within the nuclear reactor during transient experiments. TREAT is designed to test the behavior of nuclear fuel under accident conditions, such as a rapid power increase. The TREAT FMMS, also referred to as the “hodoscope” because of the system’s massive steel collimator component, is located on the North beam port of the reactor. While the FMMS system is capable of incorporating a total of 360 sensors, initial refurbishment efforts resulted in a array of 96 fast neutron detectors. This initial array was configured to provide a narrow (2 channels) full-length view of experiment vessels with an extended 4-channel–wide region in the center of the array capable of providing a full view of all initially planned experiments. Planning and efforts to expand the FMMS array began immediately following the restart of TREAT. An additional 96 detectors were evaluated, characterized, and prepared for installation at TREAT during the summer of 2018. Unfortunately, funding reductions forced the project towards a 5-year hiatus. In October of 2023 funding from the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Science User Facilities enabled the expansion to recommence. This report serves to document the activities performed to expand the FMMS detector array to 192 channels in order to provide a broader view of the larger and more sophisticated test capsules currently planned for future irradiation in the TREAT reactor. This expansion also included doubling the data acquisition capability, addressing the new heat load on the system, and synchronizing the time for all digital components.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 3018693
• Report Number(s): INL/RPT--24-80554
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
46 - INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
73 - NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
Fuel Motion Monitoring System
Hodoscope