New Approaches and Research Opportunities in a Field of Nuclear Fuel and Nuclear Power Engineering

journal article - other

English

Currently nano materials come to the forefront of interest. Nano material based admixtures can considerably improve the properties of the construction materials in many ways. The carbon nano materials belong to perspective materials that can be processed in several different forms such as nano fibers, nano wires, and single- or multi-wall nano tubes. It is necessary to know detailed properties and behavior before the first use of materials with nano particle admixtures in the nuclear power plant within the primary circuit. The deployment of new materials (close to the nuclear reactor) must be preceded by verification of the properties and behavior of the material under the neutron beam. Nano materials can improve mechanical properties of standard materials or if utilized alone, nanoparticles like nano fibers, wires, and tubes open up the possibility of creating advanced collimators and neutron guides. Currently, most of the research is made using computer simulations. However, it is necessary to backed up simulations by real measured data before real deployment of new materials. There were carried out several different measurements on nano materials at research reactor VR-1 of the Czech Technical University in Prague under the umbrella of Open Access project. The aim of the measurements was to determine how different nano particles affect a narrow beam of neutrons. It is necessary to know and observe not only the behavior of used materials and components to ensure the safe operation of nuclear power plants. The nuclear fuel itself subject to thorough supervision too. Checking and inspection of nuclear fuel and spent nuclear fuel are currently very time-consuming. Check of the spent fuel belongs to one of things the inspections put great emphasis. Cerenkov radiation can be used to check the spent nuclear fuel. There are some different analyzers of Cerenkov radiation at the moment. Cerenkov radiation contains photons in the range from UV to visible light. Therefore, the nuclear spent fuel pool measurement was carried out by luminance analyzer LumiDISP at the nuclear power plant Dukovany in the Czech Republic. The ability to evaluate the brightness of the picture is the reason for using luminance analyzer LumiDISP. This is a very quick and cheap method for analysis of nuclear spent fuel. The aim of the measurements was to verify the possibility of using luminance analyzer LumiDISP for correlation analysis between cooling time, burn up, and luminance of each fuel assembly. Corrections will be made subsequently for more accurate future measurements based on the analyzed results.

nanomaterial; neutron beam; Cherenkov radiation; Cherenkov glow; LumiDISP; CVD; DCVD; SCVD; Cherenkov viewing device

VARMUŽA, J.; KATOVSKÝ, K.; KRBAL, M.; SKALIČKA, J.

1. 5. 2015

UNIVERSITY POLITEHNICA TIMISOARA, FACULTY OF ENGINEERING HUNEDOARA

Timisoara, Romania

1584-2673

Scientific supplement of ANNALS of FACULTY ENGINEERING HUNEDOARA – INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of ENGINEERING

13

2

Romania

45-1

45-5

5

http://annals.fih.upt.ro/ANNALS-2015-2.html