Seeing the whole picture: Methods for getting the most from micro X-ray computed tomography of TRISO nuclear fuel particles

Chuirazzi, William C.; Kane, Joshua J.; Cordes, Nikolaus L.; Stempien, John D.; Kancharla, Rahul R.; Xu, Fei

doi:10.1016/j.tmater.2023.100005

Title: Seeing the whole picture: Methods for getting the most from micro X-ray computed tomography of TRISO nuclear fuel particles

Journal Article · Mon Apr 17 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Tomography of Materials and Structures

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmater.2023.100005· OSTI ID:2274963

Chuirazzi, William C. ^[1]; Kane, Joshua J. ^[1]; Cordes, Nikolaus L. ^[1]; Stempien, John D. ^[1]; Kancharla, Rahul R. ^[1]; Xu, Fei ^[1]

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

Tristructural isotropic (TRISO) coated fuel particles are a nuclear fuel form under extensive study for use in advanced nuclear reactor concepts. TRISO fuels are subjected to high temperature neutron irradiations and then examined to assess their performance by determining fission product retention and studying morphological changes. Micro X-ray computed tomography is one method of nondestructively studying the effects of TRISO performance. This work addresses the need for image processing to remove X-ray tomographic reconstruction artifacts that prevent the study of TRISO features, as the TRISO particles’ high Z kernel can introduce metal artifacts that degrade the image quality in the surrounding low Z coating layers. These metal artifacts were reduced by imaging the TRISO particles with both high- and low-energy X-rays and applying a mask to the radiographs obtained with low-energy X-rays to digitally remove the dense fuel kernel region. These masked radiographs were then used to produce a tomographic reconstruction which was combined with the tomographic reconstruction of the high-energy data. This enabled the relatively-low-density TRISO buffer layer to be examined in more detail, providing information on irradiation induced dimensional changes of the coatings. This methodology, which helps see the full picture of a TRISO particle, is not limited to nuclear fuels but can be applied to systems that contain highly attenuating material surrounded by less dense materials.

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Research Organization:: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program

Grant/Contract Number:: AC07-05ID14517; 21P1056-001FP

OSTI ID:: 2274963

Report Number(s):: INL/JOU-22-67022-Rev000

Journal Information:: Tomography of Materials and Structures, Vol. 2; ISSN 2949-673X

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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