Tentative proposals for the quality control, inspection, and testing of production fuel elements for the Dragon reactor experiment. Project DRAGON

Technical Report · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1963

OSTI ID:4136136

Conde, J. F.G.

The establishment of adequate and effective methods of quality control, inspection and testing is essential to ensure the satisfactory operation and integrity of the fuel elements for the Dragon Reactor Experiment. It is the purpose of this paper to present tentative proposals for such control at appropriate stages in the manufacture of fuel inserts and in fuel element assembly. A secondary objective of such production control is to establish reliable reference data for use in elucidating fuel element behaviour under irradiation during operation of the reactor. Such data are an essential prerequisite to meaningful post-irradiation examination. It is necessary to ensure that methods of inspection during production are compatible in all respects with the inspection and testing procedures which will be applied in the post-irradiation examination. For example, metrology must be carried out to an equal order of accuracy and by methods which are generally similar in character. This document does not seek to specify precise methods of quality control or to detail acceptance levels; the primary objective is to indicate the type of control which is considered desirable and the stage at which the proposed control procedures should be applied. It is essential that control and inspection procedures be kept to the minimum level consistent with maintaining the quality of the fuel element and establishing the necessary reference data. Where alternative procedures are possible these must be assessed critically to establish the most efficient and economical method. The precise methods which are to be employed together with levels for acceptance or rejection will be specified in detail later and will be the subject of a separate paper.

• Research Organization: Atomic Energy Establishment (AEE), Winfrith, England (United Kingdom)
• Sponsoring Organization: Atomic Energy Establishment (AEE)
• NSA Number: NSA-24-040985
• OSTI ID: 4136136
• Report Number(s): DP-Report--142; CONF-630103--9
• Country of Publication: United Kingdom
• Language: English

Related Subjects

DRAGON
FABRICATION
FUEL ELEMENTS
HIGH-TEMPERATURE GAS-COOLED REACTOR EXPERIMENT/fuel elements for, quality control, inspection, and testing proposals for
INSPECTION
MATERIALS TESTING
N38150* --Power Reactor Development--Fuels
REACTORS
TESTING