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US 5,633,468 AGranted
Monitoring of fuel particle coating cracking
AssigneeThe Babcock & Wilcox Company
InventorsThomas Powers, Donald M. Stevens, John E. Coulter
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Abstract
An apparatus and method are disclosed for determining the integrity of coated nuclear fuel particles by evaluating acoustic parameter measurements of the particles during controlled loading.
Claims5
A method for acoustically inspecting the coating integrity of the outer layer of a nuclear fuel particle comprising the steps of:
- providing a database of load vs. acoustic emission signals for various nuclear fuel particles which were subjected to loads resulting in the cracking of the fuel particles;
- determining from the provided database a threshold load level after which cracking of the fuel particles occurs;
- subjecting a fuel particle to a controlled load up to the threshold load level;
- measuring acoustic output signals during the period when the load exceeds the threshold load;
- and
- comparing the measured acoustic signals to provided database acoustic signals to determine the integrity of the fuel particle.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.