| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
MS&T24: Materials Science & Technology
|
| Symposium
|
Advanced Characterization of Materials for Nuclear, Radiation, and Extreme Environments V
|
| Presentation Title |
Deployment and Testing of a Fiber-Based Instrument for In-Reactor Thermal Property Measurements at MIT Research Reactor |
| Author(s) |
Zilong Hua, Caleb Picklesimer, Austin Fleming, Weiyue Zhou, Michael Short, David Carpenter, David Hurley |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Zilong Hua |
| Abstract Scope |
The thermal conductivity of nuclear fuels is a critical physical property that is directly related to reactor efficiency and safety. During the reactor operation, different microstructure defects, such as point defects, dislocation loops, and voids, will be generated and evolved, which significantly reduce the thermal conductivity of fuels. Currently, experimental efforts to capture such thermal conductivity degradation is primarily through post-irradiation-examination (PIE). It has been speculated that a certain amount of defects, specifically point defects, may anneal or cluster into larger scale defects prior to PIE, making the ex-situ measured properties different from the ones measured in-situ. We developed a fiber-based photothermal radiometry instrument that enables in situ thermal conductivity measurements of nuclear fuels, and here we present the latest testing results at MIT research reactor. |