Development of advanced neutron radiography for inspection on irradiated fuels and materials, 3; Examination of neutron imaging plate and computed tomography methods on unirradiated fuel rod

Yasuda, Ryo; Matsubayashi, Masahito  ; Nakata, Masahito; Harada, Katsuya ; Amano, Hidetoshi; Ando, Hitoshi*; Sasajima, Fumio; Nishi, Masahiro; Horiguchi, Yoji

Advanced neutron radiography techniques such as neutron imaging plate (NIP) and Computed Tomography (CT) methods have been investigated the practicality for Post Irradiation Examination (PIE). In this work, an unirradiated fuel rod was examined by NIP and CT methods in order to collect the fundamental data for applying these techniques to PIE.The fuel rod is composed of seven-enriched UO2 pellet and two-natural UO2 pellet that are loaded into a Zircaloy tube. There are somewhat difference in the size and shape among those UO2 pellets. A transmitted and cross-sectional images were obtained by NIP and CT methods, respectively.In the NIP image, the difference in the size, shape, and enrichment among the UO2 pellets is obviously recognized. In the case of CT method, the images clearly show the detailed shape of the cross section in the pellets, in addition, the difference in the enrichment between the natural and enriched pellets is recognized.