Investigation of the Feasibility of Utilizing Gamma Emission Computed Tomography in Evaluating Fission Product Migration in Irradiated TRISO Fuel Experiments

Conference · Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014

OSTI ID:1167534

Harp, Jason M.; Demkowicz, Paul A.

In the High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR) the TRISO particle fuel serves as the primary fission product containment. However the large number of TRISO particles present in proposed HTGRs dictates that there will be a small fraction (~10^-4 to 10^-5) of as manufactured and in-pile particle failures that will lead to some fission product release. The matrix material surrounding the TRISO particles in fuel compacts and the structural graphite holding the TRISO particles in place can also serve as sinks for containing any released fission products. However data on the migration of solid fission products through these materials is lacking. One of the primary goals of the AGR-3/4 experiment is to study fission product migration from failed TRISO particles in prototypic HTGR components such as structural graphite and compact matrix material. In this work, the potential for a Gamma Emission Computed Tomography (GECT) technique to non-destructively examine the fission product distribution in AGR-3/4 components and other irradiation experiments is explored. Specifically, the feasibility of using the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Hot Fuels Examination Facility (HFEF) Precision Gamma Scanner (PGS) system for this GECT application is considered. To test the feasibility, the response of the PGS system to idealized fission product distributions has been simulated using Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations. Previous work that applied similar techniques during the AGR-1 experiment will also be discussed as well as planned uses for the GECT technique during the post irradiation examination of the AGR-2 experiment. The GECT technique has also been applied to other irradiated nuclear fuel systems that were currently available in the HFEF hot cell including oxide fuel pins, metallic fuel pins, and monolithic plate fuel.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1167534
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-14-31509; TRN: US1500002
• Resource Relation: Conference: 7. International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology (HTR 2014), WeiHai (China), 27-31 Oct 2014
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
FISSION PRODUCT RELEASE
NUCLEAR FUELS
EMISSION COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY
IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY
HTGR TYPE REACTORS
MATRIX MATERIALS
GRAPHITE
FUEL PINS
IRRADIATION
FUEL PLATES
HOT CELLS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
COMPACTS
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COATED FUEL PARTICLES
POST-IRRADIATION EXAMINATION
RADIATION TRANSPORT
ACCURACY
CONTAINMENT
FUEL ELEMENT FAILURE
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
Fission Product Migration
GECT
TRISO
GAMMA SPECTROSCOPY