POST-IRRADIATION EXAMINATION OF TRISO-BASED FUELS USING X-RAY COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY: A REVIEW

Abstract

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) is establishing new characterization capabilities to assist with the qualification and licensing of advanced reactor designs. The designs employ fuel concepts that significantly deviate from what is currently used in the operating Canadian reactor fleet. One of the most frequently proposed and promising fuel types is TRIstructural ISOtropic (TRISO) coated fuel particles. To fully demonstrate the fuel’s performance under expected operating and design-based accident conditions, irradiation testing followed by Post-Irradiation Examination (PIE) must be conducted. The present work will review the application of X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) for TRISO-based fuel PIE to non-destructively visualize anomalies (e.g., cracks, densification, degradation, etc.) and identify their locations ahead of destructive examination like ceramography. CNL has recently procured a Zeiss Xradia 620 Versa X-ray Microscope, a versatile XCT machine, capable of imaging nuclear materials with sub-micron resolution. The findings from this work will subsequently be used to guide the TRISO-based fuel PIE implementation at CNL.