Assessment of nuclear fuel pellets using X-ray tomography

Issue title: Selected Papers from the 14th International Symposium on Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics (ISEM 2009), Part II

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Lekeaka-Takunju, Peter^a | Khan, Tariq^a | Bardel, Charles^a | Udpa, Satish^a | Udpa, Lalita^a | Kim, Jaejoon^b | Krzywosz, Kenji^c

Affiliations: [a] Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA | [b] Daegu University, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk, 712-714, Korea | [c] Electric Power Research Institute, Charlotte, NC, USA

Abstract: Fuel rods in nuclear power plants consist of uranium dioxide pellets enclosed in Zirconium alloy (Zircaloy) tubes. It is vitally important for the pellet surface to remain free from pits, cracks and chipping defects after it is loaded into the tubes to prevent local hot spots during reactor operation. The inspection of the fuel rod presents several challenges. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of using X-ray tomography inspection to detect flaws on the surface of pellets contained within the tubes using very limited number of projections.

Keywords: Nuclear fuel pellets, X-ray tomography, limited projection, convex interpolation

DOI: 10.3233/JAE-2010-1248

Journal: International Journal of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics, vol. 33, no. 3-4, pp. 1267-1272, 2010