High-Water-Base Hydraulic Fluid-Irradiation Experiments

摘要

A remote system for shearing spent nuclear fuel assemblies is being designed under the direction of the Consolidated Fuel Reprocessing Program (CFRP). The design incorporates a dual hydraulic fluid actuation system in which only one of the fluids, a high-water-base (HWBF), would be exposed to ionizing radiation and radioactive contamination. A commercially available synthetic, solution-type HWBF was selected as the reference. Single-sample irradiation experiments were conducted with three commercial fluids over a range of irradiation exposures. The physical and chemical properties of the irradiated HWBFs were analyzed and compared with unirradiated samples. In general, the results of the analyses showed increasing degradation of fluid properties with increasing irradiation dose. The results also indicated that a synthetic solution-type HWBF would perform satisfactorily in the remote shear system where irradiation doses up to 10 exp 6 Gy (10 exp 8 rad) are expected. (ERA citation 07:010259)