Development of remote controlled type field-emission type scanning electron microscope

Yasuda, Ryo; Nishino, Yasuharu ; Mita, Naoaki; Nakata, Masahito; Harada, Katsuya ; Nozawa, Yukio; Amano, Hidetoshi

Information about the fuel behavior under high burn-up operation is needed to assess the safety of the high burn-up fuels. Microstructures in irradiated fuel pellets and Zircaloy tubes influence on their integrity. The fundamental information about microstructures is necessary to estimate the formation mechanism and change in the properties of the fuels.The Field Emission type Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM) has been hence installed at the Reactor Fuel Examination Facility (RFEF). FE-SEM is designed for the remote handling type to use high radioactive materials and has equipments to keep safety for operators. Charctarization tests were carried out using Zircaloy cladding tubes with oxide films and hydrides to confirm machine performance. In the results of the tests, high-resolution images with a magnification of 30,000 were obtained. Those results show that the apparatus is maintained high performance as well as standard type.