Radioactive Grab Sampler

Special custom hardware has been designed and fabricated to allow testing nuclear fuel in test reactors. The hardware has been successfully tested in the Idaho Power Burst Facility (PBF), and the Chalk River Nuclear Reactor Universal (NRU). Commonly referred to as test trains, these assemblages of nuclear fuel, multiple instruments, and pressure boundaries have been tested to 2,000 psi and 4,000 °F. Up to 180 independent instrument channels have been accommodated in one test train. Special equipment has also been designed, fabricated, and operated at Chalk River for post-irradiated examination in the fuel storage basin, including automated fuel rod diameter measurements.

The accompanying picture illustrates another special piece of hardware (Radioactive Grab Sampler) that grabbed gas samples from the off-gas of the test train which contained highly active fission products, steam, and hydrogen. The grabbed samples that were shielded in a lead-filled custom housing were taken to a hot cell for disassembly and analysis of the gas sample. While the capability to fabricate nuclear fuel pellets is no longer available, we can resurrect the welding of thermocouples inside nuclear fuel cladding for assembly into highly instrumented fuel rods.

Project Contact: D. Hurley