| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2025 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Characterization of Minerals, Metals and Materials 2025: In-Situ Characterization Techniques
|
| 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, Alex Pomo, Robert Schley, Colby Jensen, 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 directly related to reactor efficiency and safety. During the reactor operation, all sorts of microstructure defects will be generated by neutron irradiation and 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 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. In order to fill this knowledge gap, we developed a photothermal radiometry-based instrument to measure thermal transport property of nuclear fuels in reactor. Here we present the testing results of this instrument at MIT research reactor. The measurement approach is expected to work universally; with proper modifications on the instrument design, it is expected that this work will enable in-reactor thermal conductivity in other testing reactors. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Nuclear Materials, Characterization, Other |