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Detection and Quantification of Light Isotopes in TPBAR Components by Atom Probe Tomography


EMSL Project ID
50081

Abstract

Tritium-producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) used in the U.S. Department of Energy's Tritium Readiness Program are designed to produce tritium when irradiated in a nuclear reactor. The exterior of the TPBAR is a stainless-steel tube and the internal components have been designed and selected to produce and retain tritium. Within the stainless-steel cladding is a metal getter tube made of Zircaly-4 that encircles a stack of annular, ceramic pellets of lithium aluminate. The pellets are enriched with the 6Li isotope. When irradiated in a PWR, the 6Li pellets absorb neutrons, simulating the nuclear characteristics of a burnable absorber rod, and produce tritium, a hydrogen isotope. The tritium chemically reacts with the metal getter, which captures the tritium as a metal hydride. Hence it is of interest to the tritium science program to understand the distribution of all elements in all different components of TPBARs both before and after neutron irradiation. To address this need we propose to conduct systematic atom probe tomography analysis of un-irradiated and irradiatied TPBAR components.

Project Details

Start Date
2017-11-28
End Date
2018-09-30
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

John Hardy
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Co-Investigator(s)

Arun Devaraj
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory