Improved technique for hydrogen concentration measurement in fuel claddings by backscattered electron image analysis, 2

Onozawa, Atsushi ; Harada, Akio; Honda, Junichi; Nakata, Masahito; Kanazawa, Hiroyuki; Sagawa, Tamio

The measurement technique for hydrogen concentration using Backscattered Electron Image analysis (BEI method) had been developed by Studsvik Nuclear AB. The hydride in claddings is identified using BEIs with SEM and the hydrogen concentration is calculated from the area fractions of the hydride in those BEIs. In the RFEF, the sample polishing techniques and image processing procedure for BEI method were improved to measure the hydrogen concentration in the irradiated fuel claddings more precisely. In the previous tests using the un-irradiated fuel claddings, it is confirmed improved BEI method has high reliability. The radial and axial hydrogen concentration profiles of the irradiated fuel claddings were measured with improved BEI method. As the results of these measurements, the local hydrogen concentration could be indicated more precisely with the improved BEI method compared to the other methods for the hydrogen concentration measurement and observation.