Advances in Automated QA/QC for TRISO Fuel Particle Production

摘要

Fuel in most Generation IV gas cooled reactors (GCR) typically encompasses billions of the TRISO particles. Present day QA/QC methods, done manually and in many cases destructively, cannot economically test a statistically significant fraction of the large number of the individual fuel particles required. Fully automated inspection technologies are essential to enable economical TRISO fuel particle production. A combination of in-line nondestructive evaluation (NDE) measurements employing electromagnetic induction, capacitance and digital optical imaging analysis is currently under investigation and preliminary data indicate the potential for meeting the demands of this application. To calibrate high-speed NDE methods, surrogate fuel particle samples are being coated with layers containing a variety of defects that are known to degrade fuel performance and these are being characterized using high-resolution CT and digital radiographic images. The feasibility of additional NDE measurement technologies using ultrasound is being evaluated for on-process coating control. An effort is underway to determine the feasibility of using the measurement data obtained with the new in-line nondestructive inspection techniques in a Quality Index that can be used to make quantitative decisions about the acceptability of the fuel particles.