NEET Micro-Pocket Fission Detector -- FY 2012 Status Report

A research program has been initiated by the NEET program for developing and testing compact miniature fission chambers capable of simultaneously measuring thermal neutron flux, fast neutron flux and temperature within a single package. When implemented, these sensors will significantly advance flux detection capabilities for irradiation tests in US Materials Test Reactors (MTRs).Ultimately, evaluations may lead to a more compact, more accurate, and longer lifetime flux sensor for critical mock-ups, high performance reactors and commercial nuclear power plants. Deployment of Micro-Pocket Fission Detectors (MPFDs) in US DOE-NE program irradiation tests will address several challenges: Current fission chamber technologies do not offer the ability to measure fast flux, thermal flux and temperature within a single compact probe, MPFDs offer this option. MPFD construction is very different then current fission chamber construction; the use of high temperature materials allow MPFDs to be specifically tailored to survive harsh conditions in typical high performance MTR irradiation tests. New high-fidelity reactor physics codes will need a small, accurate, multipurpose in-core sensor to validate the codes without perturbing the validation experiment; MPFDs fill this requirement. MPFDs can be built with variable sensitivities to survive the lifetime of an experiment or fuel assembly in some MTRs; allowing for more efficient and cost effective power monitoring. The small size of the MPFDs allows multiple sensors to be simultaneously deployed; obtaining data required to visualize the reactor flux and temperature profiles. This report summarizes the research progress for year 1 of this 3 year project. An updated design of the MPFD has been developed, materials and tools to support the new design have been procured, construction methods to support the new design have been initiated at INL’s HTTL and KSU’s SMART Laboratory, plating methods are being updated at KSU, new detector electronics have been designed, built and tested at KSU. In addition, a project meeting was held at KSU and a detector evaluation plan has been initiated between INL and KSU. Once NEET program evaluations are completed, the final MPFD will be deployed in MTR irradiations, enabling DOE-NE programs evaluating the performance of candidate new fuels and materials to better characterize irradiation test conditions